


Not Like the Other

by haekass



Category: Super Junior
Genre: M/M, Mutant Powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-19 07:00:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8194781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haekass/pseuds/haekass
Summary: Getting arrested and tossed into Home was probably the least odd part of Donghae's soon to be adult life. Meeting a hot guy and pondering a relationship with him should have been simple. But toss in mutant superpowers, said hot guy's 'legal' issue with skin contact, and hot guy's little sister who already knows that they're going to end up together makes it a little more complicated.So much for plain, boring Donghae.





	1. .one

**Author's Note:**

> .revamped chapter one

 

 

* * *

The front of the building looked just like all of the other skyscrapers in Seoul: tall, imposing, and lines of reflective glass marking different floors. Unlike other buildings, this one was avoided by pedestrians, didn’t have a reliable stream of people coming in and out, and had grim-faced guards standing in front.

 

Donghae was clutching the handles of his bag so tightly that his knuckles were turning white as he looked up, biting his lips with nervousness. He had been told this was where he would be staying, where he would go to school, and be with others of his _kind_. All he really wanted was to get on the first train back to Mokpo and go back to his family and familiar surroundings.

 

The hard nudge on his shoulder made him jerk sharply, and he didn't bother to look back at the guard that had prodded him. He'd be glad to be rid of them. He walked forward into the building, aware of the other man following him and stopped at the large reception desk. He fidgeted with his bag under the serious stare of an astoundingly gorgeous person, their long hair tucked behind ears and plump lips set into a firm line. Looking down at the desk for a moment, he waited to be transferred to yet another prison.

 

He tried to focus only on the table, but he could still see the guards in his peripheral vision. He swallowed, trying not to get stuck in the thought pattern that if there were guards at the doors and you couldn’t leave, you were in prison.

 

“What do you want Lee Seunggi?”

 

Donghae's eyes widened as he jerked his head up. That was the most disrespectful tone he'd ever heard directed towards the guy he had mentally termed his head guard. The voice was also deeper than he would have imagined, given the person’s appearance.

 

“We're transferring this one to your care.”

 

Donghae shifted uncertainly, not sure how to assuage the discomfort of knowing that the two people around him detested each other. They wielded polite phrasing like swords, hoping to find one misstep that would allow them under the armor.

 

_While I would love to see his guts strung out over the streets of Seoul, I do have some decorum._

 

Donghae's eyes glanced around, wondering where the sly whisper had come from. He jumped as the small file was slammed onto the desk and Lee Seunggi spun on a heel and marched sharply out.

 

“What a fucking asshole.” A slim, long fingered hand grabbed the file. “Ugh, leaving his fucking psychic energy all over this too, gross. Since you’re wondering, you can refer to me as sunbae if you need an honorific.”

 

Donghae was almost too frightened to move, and something told him that running wouldn't do him any good. Sharp eyes finally left the file and looked up at him, and Donghae wondered if this is how prey felt when they first notice the danger of a predator.

 

“So. Lee Donghae,” they said.

 

Donghae nodded silently. The other person narrowed their eyes slightly and Donghae squirmed. It felt like his brain had just turned inside out in less than a second, and then returned to its previous state, and he was distinctly aware of prickling tendrils of going through his brain. He shook his head to try and dispel the feeling, but it was about as useful as a fly attempting to move a boulder. He squeaked as the sensation moved away on its own, and he scratched at his scalp, half expecting his brain to be spilling out somehow.

 

“Very well, follow me.”

 

They looked over their shoulder, arching an eyebrow when Donghae hadn't moved. “Lee Donghae, move. You might be free from schedules, but the rest of us are not.”

 

Reluctantly, Donghae stepped forward, his fingers still tight around his bag. He forced himself to breathe deeply as he was motioned into a waiting elevator. _It has to be a mistake. It's a mistake. A mistake. Mistake._ He repeated that mantra as if it was a life line. There was nothing out of the ordinary about him. He was just plain, boring Donghae.

 

“You might like to continue thinking that, but that isn't the case, Lee Donghae.”

 

Blinking, he spun half around. “ _What_?”

 

“The testing was correct in that you do have the mental signature of _us_. Which means you are not plain, boring Donghae.”

 

The panic was starting to set in, pulling his breath short as he realized that it was his thoughts being spoken about. “Get out of my head!”

 

“Stop thinking so loudly next to a telepath, then,” came the bored reply.

 

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened, showing an extraordinarily large room, soothing shades of green and blue broken up by large windows. There was a bed and a long table with various items on it, but bare aside from that.

 

“Make yourself comfortable. I have to attend a few arranged schedules first, then I will be back to help you get adjusted to your new life here.”

 

“What is this place?” Donghae wondered aloud, trying to force tears and panic back.

 

“We call it Home.”

 

“Home?” Donghae repeated with a touch of scorn. This wasn’t home, it was some other prison. Home was a warm house in Mokpo in his little bedroom, hearing his mother bustling around and chiding Donghwa about doing yard work or nudging him to take the dogs on a walk.

 

“Yes, Home. Due to genetics, it’s now your home too, and will be probably for the rest of your life.” The deep voice was quiet and soothing, a touch of empathy buried in there. “It’s not easy to adjust to this life, but you’re resilient Lee Donghae. You’ve proven that since you survived being in the custody of prime asshole Lee Seunggi.”

 

Donghae couldn’t help but laugh shortly as he was left alone, but within thirty seconds, the reality he found himself in crashed around him and his laughter quickly turned into giant, gulping sobs. He sank down to the floor, curling in on himself as he cried.

 

He cried until he couldn’t anymore, the tears drying to salty tracks on his face as he stared dully at the wall. He barely noticed when the person – whatever their name was – came back and he had no clue of how long he’d been on the floor just staring at the wall.

 

A deep, heaving sigh made him blink a couple of times, but he didn’t move other than that. “If you can, go lay down in bed. I’ll bring someone up to help.”

 

The elevator dinged again and Donghae closed his eyes before opening them again. Moving felt like such a monumental effort, but he was starting to ache from being on a hard floor. Slowly standing, he wobbled over to the bed, sitting down heavily when he finally got there. Toeing off his shoes, he laid down, staring at the ceiling.

 

He finally felt something other than numbness when he realized that it looked like something had charred spots in the ceiling and it was definitely pockmarked with smaller holes. Blinking a few times, he tilted his head and glanced over, following what looked like a trail of destruction that centered around the table. His curiosity had almost overridden the numbness when the elevator dinged once more.

 

“I see what you meant Heenim.”

 

Donghae raised his head just enough to see that there was someone else there, but finer details escaped him until they moved closer. Longish black hair was pulled up just enough to be off his face, revealing kind eyes and pouty lips with a distinctive curve.

 

A hand reached out and softly petted his hair, the motion so soothing that Donghae felt himself relax. “Hi. I’m Lee Sungmin. Heenim told me that your name is Donghae right?”

 

Donghae nodded a couple of times.

 

“Do you know if you hurt anywhere?” Sungmin asked.

 

Thinking about it for a moment, he finally shook his head. Everything was just numb, frightening, and completely out of his control. Shame fought with numbness for a moment before it settled back.

 

“That’s what I thought. There’s nothing to be ashamed of Donghae, what you’ve been through is a rather traumatic experience. I’m going to check you over quickly to make sure that you haven’t been injured, okay?”

 

Donghae nodded. “Okay,” he croaked. He latched onto the familiar thought of _doctor_ as he relaxed further.

 

Sungmin smiled. “Sleep helps the mind heal, Lee Donghae, and you need it now.”

 

Donghae wanted to protest that he wasn’t tired, but his eyes closed and he almost immediately fell asleep. He had no clue how long he slept, but when he woke up, it was dark outside of the windows, Seoul lit up with artificial lights that shined into the large room. He noticed that he was curled up against a solid and warm body, and he heard a grunt.

 

“Go back to sleep,” a deep voice, one that was newly familiar, grumbled. “It’s one in the morning.”

 

“You’re in the bed with me,” Donghae pointed out, sleep still clogging his mind.

 

“How very astute of you. Before you ask, I am a creature of comfort. I am not going to subject myself to the hideously uncomfortable cot when there is plenty of room on the bed. Go back to sleep.” The dark form twisted a bit, punched the pillow a couple of times, then settled.

 

Donghae just stared at the ceiling. This was probably something that should seem odd to him – he didn’t even know the other person’s name aside from the _Heenim_ nickname that he remembered Sungmin using – but he didn’t feel like it was odd at all, or if it was odd, it was right up there with the new oddness to his life. Closing his eyes, he left himself sleep again, content that someone was near. It reminded him of when he and Donghwa used to share a bed, and the old associations of safety, security, and comfort lulled him.

 

When he woke up yet again, it was early morning, the artificial brightness of nighttime Seoul replaced with the brightness of the sun.

 

“Are you always this much of an early bird?”

 

Donghae turned his head slightly. Dark hair was tangled over a face that was screwed shut in distaste.

 

“Habit from waking up for school,” he explained. “You can go back to sleep.”

 

A deep, heaving sigh gusted out, moving the strands of hair. “You’re lucky you’re cute. Unfortunately, since you’re up, now I am too. It’s impossible for a telepath to sleep when someone around them is awake.”

 

Donghae shrugged. “Sorry.”

 

“I should have been prepared for this, really, given how long you’ve been asleep.”

 

“What’s your name?” Donghae blurted out before his nerves could take over.

 

Dark eyes blinked at him for a moment. “Kim Heechul, but since I don’t prefer to align myself with a gender, Heenim suffices for a name when one is required.”

 

Donghae nodded, wondering what they meant by not aligning with a gender, but he wondered if there was the same discrimination…

 

“Yes there is,” Heenim replied to his silent musings. “I don’t experience as much within Home than I would out there, since we are already a much smaller populace and we’ve all had to learn to get along. Yes, that does mean you are free to be yourself, Lee Donghae. Very few will slight you for who you are attracted to.”

 

Donghae blushed, ducking his head as he rolled up out of bed. “So, um, do I have to do anything today?” he asked, his fingers plucking at the hem of his shirt.

 

Heenim stretched while still in the bed, leisurely taking time before sitting up. “First order of business is food. We’ll discuss testing for aptitude later today. Since you haven’t activated and only displayed the mental signature, you need to get comfortable in here before your power will make itself known. Your mental state is far too chaotic to concentrate on the tests, and due to the somewhat volatile way that we activate, you will be staying here until you have activated for everyone else’s safety.”

 

“Oh,” Donghae muttered. The room was really just another glorified prison cell after all. “When does that happen?”

 

“The activation? Could be today or tomorrow or some time from now. Everyone is different.”

 

“What if I don’t activate?”

 

“You will.” Heenim’s voice was confident and sure, but also solid.

 

“But what if I don’t? What if everyone is wrong about this?”

 

Heenim looked at him with distinct sympathy. “You will activate. The testing was correct and I am not wrong when I felt and knew your mental signature. I don’t want to keep you here for any longer than necessary, but this floor is one of the few that can handle an initial activation. I appreciate the thoughts of just being allowed to go back home, but it is not one that will come to pass. While I am off getting food for the both of us, do take a shower. It will help you settle in.”

 

Donghae waited until Heenim was gone before he sat down heavily on the bed, scrubbing his hands over his face. The empty, gnawing sensation he’d become familiar with after his father’s death tried to enclose him in hopelessness and fear. Stopping his train of thought, he took a slow breath in and let it out.

 

“My name is Lee Donghae. It is some date in April. I am in the buildings everyone here calls Home,” he said out loud into the empty room. Repeating the affirmations helped calm him down, reminding him that he was still alive and still going.

 

Rising up off the bed, he ducked through the shower, his stomach letting him know in no uncertain terms that he was _ravenous_. He fidgeted, trying to keep his hands off the small handheld devices as he waited for the food to arrive. He was just reaching out for one when the elevator dinged and he hurriedly withdrew his hand like he’d been burned.

 

Heenim’s lips were curved, clearly knowing what Donghae almost did. “I almost heard your stomach growling from three floors away. Here, eat.”

 

A tray with soup, rice, and some kimchi was slid onto the table and Donghae nearly inhaled the food, making sure he didn’t miss a morsel. Leaning back when all of the food was gone, he sighed almost happily.

 

“The capacity of a growing body never ceases to amaze me. Sungmin will come with lunch in a few hours, but let’s go ahead and try to get some basics down.”

 

* * *

 

 

Donghae knew that two weeks had passed since he’d first arrived, since Sungmin and Heenim alternated who would stay overnight with him and he could reliably count the number of times he’d seen either. While Heenim slept on the bed, Sungmin chose to sleep in the cot that Heenim had derided, but seemed to not be suffering any ill effects from it. He’d finally been allowed to use the various testers, all of which had been specifically designed to prod his power into activating. Heenim had made him use one tester two days in a row, explaining that something in his mind lit up when using the kinetic tester. But it didn’t make him activate, and he didn’t know who was more frustrated about it.

 

He’d had a growing headache for the past few days, each test adding just a little more to the pain. He could feel Heenim poking around in his mind with each test, prodding what he felt/sensed was the same area over and over again, which made the headache worse.

 

He yelped as the tester shocked him slightly and he flung the tester away from him into the room. “That hurt,” he complained with a pout.

 

Sungmin’s soft hands rubbed his neck for a moment, and he felt a soothing brush within his thoughts, the pain banking down to a tolerable level. “That’s probably enough for today,” Sungmin finally commented as Donghae’s shoulders relaxed into the brief massage. “Which tests are left, Heenim?”

 

Heenim sighed. “Not many. I’ve already ruled out telepathy and any true telekinesis already, there’s absolutely no precognitive abilities, all of the medical type things you like to play with makes his brain feel dead and flat, and apparently he has an adverse reaction to anything electric or electronics.”

 

Sungmin snorted a laugh. “Right, we should keep him away from the cranky technos, then. What about elemental tests since there’s some kinetic ability that doesn’t respond to anything else?”

 

Heenim made a disgusted noise. “Leaving those for last. I hate them since they’re so cumbersome and potentially dangerous, and we can usually trigger activation with just these up here.”

 

“But the elementals are the only ones left?” Sungmin asked.

 

“I knew I wasn’t going to activate,” Donghae grumbled under his breath. “I’m going to be stuck here forever.”

 

Donghae was thankful that Sungmin hadn’t heard him, but he knew Heenim had picked up on his thoughts from the slight pause. “Essentially, yes, the elementals are the only ones left. But there has to be something that we overlooked up here. We haven’t had an elemental activate since before I was born.”

 

Donghae looked up just as he saw Sungmin shrug. “What do you think Donghae? Can you handle a few more tests?”

 

“What are they?” he asked suspiciously.

 

Sungmin hopped up on the table, his feet swinging slightly. “Tests designed with elements in mind. If you’re not responding to these tests up here, maybe we do need to try something just a touch more basic.”

 

“Do I have a choice?”

 

“Right now, yes. Eventually, no. We need to get you activated and your mental health will only take so much before you subsume in despair, which makes it nearly impossible for you to activate.”

 

“Why not?” Donghae wondered if he didn’t activate he’d allowed to go home.

 

Sungmin shrugged, frowning a little. “It was before my time, but the few who didn’t activate any powers wound up… self-destructing is the best way I can phrase it.”

 

Donghae blew out his breath and stood up. “Well, let’s get them over with and find out what else I’m not attuned for,” he griped. “I already have a headache too, so what’s a little more?”

 

To his surprise, they went down several floors before the elevator stopped. The digital display only said _sub3_ as an indication of where they were. The doors opened into blackness, and Heenim kept the doors from shutting. Sungmin grabbed Donghae’s hand and pulled him into the room before dropping his hand.

 

After a few moments of Donghae trying to get his eyes to adjust, Sungmin spoke. “I’m here, Heenim.”

 

Looking behind him, he saw Heenim nod and exit the elevator, the door quickly shutting and sending the entire place into darkness. Donghae had always hated the dark and he turned rapidly in a circle, trying to find anything he could actually see. When nothing swam into view, he felt his breath growing short as his mind happily conjured various horror scenarios. They were underground – at least he assumed so – and there were _spiders_ and _snakes_ underground and _what if something bit him_ …

 

For the first time, he heard and recognized Heenim’s mental voice along with the expected prod. _Breathe, there’s no pests down here_.

 

“Heenim?” Sungmin asked from wherever he was.

 

“I’m ready.”

 

“Cover your eyes Donghae,” Sungmin ordered in a tone that provided no room for argument.

 

Covering his eyes with his hands, he saw the darkness lift from between his fingers, but the light grew brighter to where he was clenching his eyes shut against the glare. He felt the prod and winced.

 

“Turn it back to normal, Sungmin.”

 

The light quickly abated to a more comfortable level, though Donghae still had spots in front of his eyes. Blinking rapidly, he tried to refocus. The room he was in was enormous, practically every surface painted a blinding shade of white, including the raised dais in the center of the room that Sungmin was puttering around on. Heenim was waiting next to him, their long, slender fingers gripping a strange looking pair of goggles. “So that’s no to both shadows and light.”

 

“Easy elements or hard ones first?” Sungmin asked.

 

Heenim waved an elegant hand as they walked towards the dais. “Easy ones, there’s no sense in making him pass out yet.”

 

“ _What_?” Donghae nearly shrieked, wide eyed.

 

Heenim looked back. “Air is always the last thing we will ever test for. Also, you might want to turn around.”

 

Donghae spun, a surprised and scared cry leaving him as he hopped backwards and lost his balance, landing heavily on his butt. The jets of flame from the floor were coming closer and he scrambled back as fast as he could. “Are you trying to help me or _kill me_?” he yelled as a jet shot up far too close to him, turning the side of his face red from the heat.

 

He let out a shriek as he realized the fire had encircled him and was coming closer. Curling in on himself, he stuck his face and hands between his legs, trying to protect his bare skin as much as he could. The heat was oppressive, making it hard to breathe, and he heard the fire jets coming closer. Whimpering in fear, he waited for the flames to consume him.

 

Just before the fire got to him he felt the prod and then the noise and heat suddenly cut off. Looking up and around wildly, he saw Sungmin coming closer.

 

“No aptitude for fire either,” Heenim said, a bored tone to their voice.

 

“That was supposed to be an _easy_ test?” Donghae shrieked.

 

“One of them, yes,” Sungmin replied as he pulled Donghae up and nearly dragged him to where the floor was sliding back, revealing a large, deep pool. “This one might be easier, though.”

 

One effortless shove had Donghae spinning his arms as he fell into the pool.

 

Donghae’s indignant shout was cut off by water filling his mouth. It was fresh water, like the small streams he and Donghwa used to play in, and this time, when he felt the prod, his eyes opened wide under water. The water almost _welcomed_ him, the sense of calm and rightness cushioning his head and draining the tension from his body. He watched the splash his body had created growing and growing as he breathed out. The prodding gave way and Donghae felt Heenim nearly diving into his mind, going further than ever before.

 

The need for air suddenly became a pressing matter.

 

He felt the water move against his back, pushing him towards the surface. His face broke water and he gulped in air, coughing up the water that had slipped into his lungs. He started treading water almost on instinct and looked around. Sungmin was just as wet as what Donghae was, his eyes closed. Slowly, Sungmin wiped the water away from his eyes and looked down at Donghae, a wry twist to his lips that indicated amusement.

 

“Water, obviously.”

 

Heenim was cackling, nearly bent over the control systems. “Oh that was _priceless_. Definitely one of the better activations that I’ve ever seen.”

 

“I’m glad you’re amused, Heenim.” Sungmin shook his hair off his face. “Come on out of there Donghae. I’m going to go change into dry clothes and let Halmeoni know that he needs a room.”

 

Heenim drew in a couple of breaths before nodding. “Tell Halmeoni I’ll meet with her as soon as Donghae is settled.”

 

Donghae lifted himself out of the pool as Sungmin walked back towards the elevator, waving a card across the reader. He winced as he heard and felt the squelch his shoes did as he stood up. Bending down, he untied the shoes, cursing at the laces that didn’t want to come apart. Grimacing at the sensation of wet socks rubbing against wet shoes, he pulled both his shoes and socks off to stand in bare feet. The air around him rapidly chilled him and he started shivering as he walked quickly to the elevator, his jeans making a squeaking noise with every step.

 

He shivered the entire ride up, his teeth chattering slightly. As soon as they were back to the floor where he’d been confined, he eagerly toweled off the moisture and changed into dry clothes.

 

“Is everything still in your bag?” Heenim asked.

 

Donghae nodded as he wrapped his wet clothes in a towel. “Was that activating?” he asked, a yawn surprising him.

 

“Yes, which means you can now join everyone else.”

 

“Don’t I need to learn control or something?” he asked, searching his memory for what he’d seen in films and television.

 

“Control takes time. The activation is the ‘dangerous to others’ part, since you’re now aware of your power.” Heenim tapped on their lips as they waited on the elevator again. “You _might_ be able to unconsciously draw on your power, but you’re definitely not going to be drowning people by not concentrating as you’re walking along a hallway.”

 

“So I have to turn it on in my mind?” Donghae asked as they boarded the elevator.

 

“Something like that, yes. It’s more like it’s on, but you have to screw in the lightbulb.”

 

“What about you?”

 

Heenim shrugged. “Mine is always lit and there’s no way to turn it off.”

 

The elevator stopped ten floors up, and Donghae was directed towards a sky bridge that connected all of the tall buildings together. He had to stop and stare for a moment, mentally blown away. Home was not just one tall office building in Seoul, it was five connected buildings, four of which he hadn’t even seen from the sidewalk. Home had to cover an entire city block and he wondered how no one noticed it.

 

“Oh people notice it,” Heenim commented. “They just go out of their way to avoid concentrating on it.”

 

The sky bridge seemed to converge at a central point, which looked enormous. People moved in a flow of traffic, just as they would on the streets below. There were people in business suits, uniforms, children in school uniforms, and those that were dressed casually all milling about in the rotunda.

 

“Don’t get lost,” Heenim warned as they approached the central area.

 

Donghae nodded and followed close. Most people looked like normal people, but there was the odd glimpse of wings or scales and in one case, full body fur, that told Donghae that their powers could activate in vastly different ways.

 

When Heenim stopped suddenly at a warbling yell, Donghae pulled up short in the middle of a yawn and barely avoided crashing into them. Looking around Heenim’s body, he saw a young girl in a school uniform, her hair in two braids that came over her shoulders, with a wide, gummy smile on her lips.

 

Her mouth opened in that strange warbling again, and Donghae blinked several times as a cartoonish picture of a gray cat appeared in mid-air, surrounded by a manga-like speech bubble. Several people had looked over at her yell, but all went back to their conversations or errands, presumably because she wasn’t addressing them.

 

Heenim bent at the waist, holding their arms out. The girl made a happy noise and ran forward, hugging Heenim tightly. “Hello Lami,” Heenim greeted warmly, gently cupping her face.

 

She waved excitedly, then spun to look at Donghae. She tilted her head curiously, and if he thought that Heenim’s telepathy saw right through him, he felt as transparent as glass under this girl’s stare.

 

She made a noise, kind of like water plopping and giggled loudly as a cartoon-like clownfish appeared within a speech bubble. Heenim looked at Donghae with a smirk, then back at Lami. “I can see the resemblance.”

 

Lami giggled again, and made a couple of more noises. The clownfish began swimming within the confines of the speech bubble, circling around until it encountered a slim, silver anchovy.

 

Heenim tilted their head slightly, and Donghae could see the resemblance to a cat. “Have you been waiting on him to activate?”

 

Lami nodded and pointed towards the two fish swimming around the speech bubble like it was an aquarium. She made a noise with a rising intonation at the end, probably indicating a question.

 

“Well, since there’s no reason to not take him to meet your anchovy oppa, lead the way.”

 

Lami nodded shortly and reached out to grab Donghae’s hand, tugging him along with her. Heenim followed, a fond smile on their lips. For someone who was just about three quarters his height, Lami had an iron grip and moved with surprising speed. He was dragged into a building, down a flight of stairs and through so many hallways he knew he’d be lost if he tried to find his way back.

 

They finally entered a large gymnasium, some people working out, but the majority practicing taekwondo on the mats. Lami was loud as she made a couple of sounds, and a large anchovy cartoon popped into being above their heads.

 

“I’m over here, Lami,” a voice called from the side.

 

Donghae was dragged along again, finally seeing the person Lami was looking for. Just barely over Donghae’s height with the uniform baggy and large on a thin frame that was only highlighted by the cinched belt. His single lidded eyes had wrinkles around them from the wide smile as he stepped off the mat. Lami finally let go of Donghae’s wrist to go hug him, and he noticed plump lips ghosted over Lami’s hair.

 

“You should be in school,” he softly chided, not unkindly.

 

Lami plopped the water sound again, the clownfish appearing again, but much smaller, like she was whispering. She pointed at Donghae and tugged on his sleeve, trying to move the other man towards where Donghae was rooted to the spot.

 

Donghae watched the eyes glance over him quickly, polite curiosity quirking the strong eyebrows.

 

“She wants you and Donghae to meet,” Heenim supplied, a sly tone to their voice that had Donghae wondering what was going on. He felt his face flush under the scrutiny.

 

“For what Lami?”

 

Donghae jerked when Lami yanked his hand forward, making the rest of him follow in a couple of awkward, clumsy steps that brought him very close to the other man. She curled his hand around the other man’s arm, near his wrist, but to where the sleeve was between their skin. She let go and nodded, making the water drop sound along with the two sounds that had accompanied the anchovy. Both fish appeared in the speech bubble, happily swimming next to each other. Lami hummed a high note, a bright red heart flashing over the two fish, who had stopped and were… kissing?

 

Donghae’s eyes went wide and given how hot his face felt, he guessed he was blushing spectacularly. Glancing over, he saw that the other guy was red as well. That made him feel a little better.

 

Lami nodded, a satisfied smile curving her lips. The odd vision lingered in the air for a moment before it erased itself and changed to a spinning apple as she looked at Heenim.

 

“Sure, I’ll walk you back and explain to your teacher where you were at,” they replied, holding out a hand for Lami to take.

 

“What is going on?” Donghae finally forced out, wondering if he was having a hallucination. _Please just let this be a hallucination._

 

“Lami thinks that you’re in good hands with her anchovy oppa. Donghae just activated about thirty minutes ago, you should get him fed and let him pass out in that extra bed you have in your room.”

 

The guy’s strong eyebrows pinched together. “Isn’t this your job? I’m in the middle of practice!”

 

“You heard me,” Heenim replied flatly. Donghae gasped as he saw a mental vision that Heenim was projecting to them. He was sleeping, curled up with the man he was currently gripping, their legs tangled, and embarrassingly clear that they were naked. Donghae wanted to curl up into a ball and just die of embarrassment. “That is the dominant thing she’s letting me see that she’s already precogged. You both apparently already have her blessing. Take care of Donghae, Hyukjae, get him fed and then let him sleep. I’ll tell Halmeoni that Donghae will stay with you and Lami.”

 

With that, Heenim turned and walked away, Lami giving them a bright smile and a wave as she walked out.

 

 _Don’t panic, I’ll be around and probably closer than you want at points_ , Heenim slyly whispered in his mind.

 

Donghae made a noise in the back of his throat. He wondered if it was bad manners to just have a complete breakdown in front of people he’d never met, the graphic picture still practically engraved in his mind of him lying _naked_ with a guy who hadn’t even been introduced to him yet, and he was still trying to process the thing with the water.

 

Just when Donghae thought he would collapse to the floor in a crying mess, he heard a soft sigh. “Sunbae said that you just activated?”

 

Donghae looked at the other man and nodded. He sniffed a little, his lower lip trembling.

 

“Oh hell, don’t cry please. Stay here for thirty seconds, let me get my things, and I’ll take you to food.”

 

“I-I’m not hungry?” he got out, but the other guy was already back on the mat, bowing to his instructor before quickly talking to him, gesturing towards Donghae. Within a minute, he was back, a large bag attached to a strap over his shoulder. Donghae tried again. “I’m not really hungry.”

 

The guy shrugged, tugging on a pair of thin leather gloves. “You may not feel it at the moment because you look like you’re about to have a nervous breakdown, but activating an active power burns a _lot_ of calories and energy. You need to eat before you fall asleep, otherwise you’re going to feel like shit for a week and then I’ll be catching hell from Lami because I didn’t take care if you.”

 

Stepping into an elevator again, Donghae yawned. “I don’t even know your name.”

 

Plump lips turned upwards. “Lee Hyukjae. You?”

 

“Lee Donghae,” he managed in between yawns.

 

Donghae could definitely tell that he was getting tired and he didn’t know if he’d be awake long enough to eat anything. Hyukjae nodded his head towards a brightly lit shop and suddenly Donghae was trying to juggle two cartons of orange juice, a steamed pork bun, and his bag. Hyukjae was chatting familiarly with the older man behind the counter while dominoes arranged themselves with no hand touching them.

 

“But…” he started, his bottom lip pushing out and embarrassment flaming his cheeks. He’d blushed more in the past thirty minutes than he had in the past three years. “I don’t have any money,” he softly confessed.

 

The older man behind the counter blinked at him owlishly. “Is he new?”

 

Hyukjae nodded. “Activated less than an hour ago.”

 

The man’s face crumpled in sympathy. “Oh you poor thing! Hyukjae, stop talking to an old man and get him fed and into a bed!”

 

Hyukjae smiled and rolled his eyes teasingly. “You’re the third one to tell me that in the past five minutes, ahjussi! We’re going!”

 

“But!” Donghae exclaimed as he was practically pushed out of the shop.

 

“We don’t use money in Home since the government is providing all of our stuff for us since we’re basically in a prison. Besides, I don’t think anyone would expect you to have money. You’re here alone and you look like you’re _maybe_ sixteen, so you’re cut off from your family.”

 

Donghae furrowed his eyebrows as they stepped into another elevator. “I’m eighteen though?” He tried to ignore the slight panic that came with the casual confirmation that he most likely would never see his family again.

 

Hyukjae stared at him for a moment, then almost blatantly checked him out. “I’m surprised that we’re the same age, but that does explain a few things. You’d better eat. You’re barely going to make it to a bed as is.”

 

Donghae nodded and bit into the bun, flavors exploding all along his tongue and his body informing him that he was _very_ hungry. He nearly inhaled the rest of the bun, then gulped down the juice, the weird sensations of him recognizing the water in the juice as it slid down his throat. By the time Hyukjae was unlocking a door, Donghae was swaying on his feet. Hyukjae had to half tug and half carry him down the hall to a room after they had stepped out of their shoes at the door, where there was indeed a bare bed shoved in the corner on the opposite side of the obviously lived in side of the room. He fell face first onto the bed, groaning with relief. Turning his head, he stubbornly blinked as a pillow landed on him.

 

Turning all the way over took some effort, and he felt the drowsiness making his eyelids feel heavy. “Why are you not freaking out?” he mumbled as Hyukjae came towards him with a blanket.

 

“Oh I’m freaked out that my eleven-year-old sister knows far more about my sex life and what’s going to happen in it than I’m really comfortable with, but she’s not wrong when she has a vision. So if she says that’s what’s going to happen, it will happen. I’ve learned to just go with the flow with Lami, even if I’m freaking out,” Hyukjae replied as he covered Donghae with the blanket.

 

“Oh.”

 

Donghae closed his eyes, and that was the last thing he remembered for a very long time.


	2. .two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .revamped chapter 2

Donghae plastered himself against the wall of his room, his entire focus narrowing to the military-grade automatic rifle. Panic shot through him again as he tried to fight off black-gloved fingers, only for everything to freeze as he felt the cold metal of a gun press against his forehead. His eyes stayed open, as much as he wanted to close them, and he saw a finger begin to slowly squeeze the trigger…

 

Donghae jerked himself awake, fear and panic still clawing through his system and a scream caught in his throat as he sat up. The room he shared with Hyukjae was dark, but with just enough light drifting in and around the curtains giving him enough light to make out Hyukjae turned towards the wall. Breathing heavily, he dropped back down onto the bed with a muffled groan. He hadn’t been sleeping well for the past week after he’d activated, and he whined quietly, wanting to go back to sleep. But if the past few days had been any indication, he’d just have another nightmare. Quietly sighing, he sat back up and started the process of getting out of bed, thinking to himself about how bad his control lesson was going to be.

 

“It’s barely three in the morning,” Hyukjae grumbled, his voice slow and deep.

 

Donghae jolted, startled out of his musings. “Sorry, had a nightmare.”

 

“Again?” Fabric rustled as Hyukjae sat up, scratching his fingers through his hair.

 

“Huh?” Donghae asked, startled. He was pretty certain that Hyukjae had been sleeping through his waking up and getting out of bed.

 

“You’ve been having nightmares all this week,” Hyukjae said, his voice a little more alert. “What are they about?”

 

Donghae sighed, dipping his head. “About when I was taken from my house. I can’t get back to sleep when all I can remember is seeing the wrong end of a gun.”

 

“Have you talked to anyone about this?”

 

“No,” Donghae said, hearing the weariness in his own voice. All his body wanted to do was go back to sleep, but his thoughts kept spinning out of control.

 

Hyukjae sighed heavily. “Okay I’m going to get dressed and you’re going to see Sungmin hyung. You need to get some sleep.”

 

“But he’s probably asleep and I don’t want to bother him,” Donghae protested. “I’m just going to go make myself some tea.”

 

“Does it help?”

 

“Not really,” he admitted.

 

“So what does help?”

 

Donghae shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t really have nightmares regularly until after I activated.”

 

“Every night?” Hyukjae’s voice rose on the final word, and Donghae shrugged slightly.

 

“It’s not really a big deal,” he demurred.

 

“Uh, yeah it kind of is,” Hyukjae rebutted. “If you’ve been having nightmares for a week straight, it’s a really big deal and you _need_ to have it checked out.”

 

Donghae grunted a bit, not entirely sure how to respond. He didn’t want to be a bother to anyone, but he definitely needed more sleep than what he was getting. Finally, he sighed in defeat. His body was clamoring for more sleep, and he knew, deep in his thoughts, that he couldn’t survive like this much longer. “When I would have an occasional nightmare, I’d go sleep with my hyung,” he said, his voice barely louder than a whisper and his fingers plucking nervously at his blanket.

 

“In the same room?” Hyukjae asked after he’d finished a yawn.

 

“Same bed.” He saw Hyukjae still. “I’ll just go make some tea. I’m probably up for the day.” He’d gotten the impression that Hyukjae shied away from skin to skin contact but he’d not been comfortable enough to ask why.

 

“Donghae.”

 

Donghae closed his eyes for a moment. He was tired and exhausted, but that didn’t stop his thoughts from interpreting Hyukjae’s sleepy voice as sexy. “Hm?” he finally responded.

 

“Come here and sleep. I’ll drag you to Sungmin hyung before class.”

 

“But…” Donghae heard his voice crack a little and he cleared his throat. “But I figured out that you don’t like skin contact. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

 

“If I was really uncomfortable I wouldn’t have made the offer. Besides, according to Lami, we’ll be having lots of skin contact at some point, so I’d better start working on getting more comfortable with at least having you near and then work from there.”

 

“Only if you’re sure…” Donghae demurred, wondering if Hyukjae was still so sleepy that he lacked any filter for his words.

 

“Just get over here,” Hyukjae demanded, humor evident in his voice. “I want to get some more sleep before the alarms wake us up.”

 

Donghae stood and immediately swayed in place. He definitely needed more sleep. Stumbling over to the other side of the room, he softly patted the bed to figure out where he could reasonably crawl in.

 

Hyukjae was wiggling back down underneath the blanket, turning on his side to give Donghae more room. Donghae slid the rest of his body onto the bed, turning on his side as well. His eyes dragged down as soon as he’d pillowed his head on his arm and he thankfully slept, dreamless.

 

When their combined alarms did go off, Donghae grimaced a little and snuggled a little harder into the warm body next to him. He smiled slightly at the feeling of a hand soothingly running up and down his back before a grunt had his eyes opening with a yawn.

 

“You snuggle hard,” Hyukjae lightly complained, his eyes not open yet, but a small smile curving his lips.

 

“You’re warm and I’m not as exhausted as I would have been had I tried to stay up,” Donghae returned easily.

 

“You needed sleep,” Hyukjae finally said, stretching and opening his eyes. Donghae noticed that Hyukjae had a face mask slung across his chin and a familiar pair of thin leather gloves on his hands. His arms were surprisingly bare, but Donghae noticed that Hyukjae had looped his arm in just the right way to always be covered by Donghae’s shirt.

 

“Um, do you mind if I ask why the no skin contact?” Donghae shyly asked, not moving. He didn’t want to jostle Hyukjae’s arm.

 

“Besides the legal reason that the Ministry said I can never touch anyone without clothes in the way?” Hyukjae shrugged. “My power works on skin contact.”

 

Donghae tilted his head slightly. “What is your power? You know mine’s water, right?”

 

Hyukjae blinked a few times before he pulled his head up to stare at Donghae. “ _Water_? You’re an elemental?”

 

Donghae nodded. “You should have seen how big the splash got in the testing pool. It’s so weird feeling the water in juice and in your own body too. I was _so_ distracted by my own body being a giant sack of water for a couple of days, along with all of the water in the pipes and Cheonggyecheon…” he trailed off when he realized he was rambling and shook his head. He could still get distracted by everything around him, but that had been the focus of one of his first control lessons. He was surprised he still didn’t have a headache from Heenim yelling at him both physically and telepathically, then prodding at his mind like he had when Donghae activated. But it had worked, and Donghae was mostly able to ignore his body and the water everywhere after only a couple of days.

 

“I was wondering why you were so dazed and out of it earlier this week, but wow I’ve never heard of an elemental activating here.”

 

“Yeah, I’m told it happens more often with larger populations, but it hasn’t happened in Korea for decades. It’s still a little weird to be thought of as anything extraordinary, you know? When it comes down to it, I’m just a kinetic, but limited to water.”

 

Hyukjae huffed a little. “I’ve never heard anyone downplay their abilities like that before. I think it’s a little more special than just being kinetic like what you’re saying, though. Maybe when you really settle into your power, you’ll figure out a few more things you can do with it. Like are you a waterbender like in Avatar? Because Katara could do all sorts of stuff with water bending!”

 

Donghae laughed shortly. “Maybe? I don’t know. Now that I’m not distracted by all the water, I’m still trying to learn how to just feel it without doing anything to it and not gagging myself when I’m drinking something.”

 

“Oh, right you’re still in your early control lessons. But how in the world do you gag yourself while drinking?”

 

“I feel the water in whatever I’m drinking and when I feel it, I guess I unconsciously yank it around, so I gag because the water comes back up.” Donghae lightly poked Hyukjae’s ribs through his shirt after a moment. “Come on, I told you what I do, what’s your power?”

 

Hyukjae shrugged, a little bashfully. “My power’s practically useless to me. I just boost everyone.”

 

“Boost?” Donghae repeated, his eyebrows furrowing.

 

“Heenim sunbae calls me a gestalt. I take anyone’s power, multiply it, and feed it back to them. I just seem to be a conduit for everyone else to use.”

 

Donghae blinked a couple of times, his slightly sleep-fuzzed mind trying to understand the implications. “I don’t know, that sounds kind of cool to me. You don’t like it though?”

 

Hyukjae sighed. “It’s useless to _me_. I can boost anyone except myself and I don’t have anything else that works in self-defense like you do. It’s also pretty dangerous, but Lami apparently doesn’t think it’s a danger to you.”

 

Donghae tilted his head slightly, not sure which question he wanted to tackle first. “Does your power turn off or is it always on?”

 

“Always on,” Hyukjae sighed, the corners of his lips turning down. “My power, if you even want to call it that, is completely passive. It works no matter what.”

 

Donghae looped his arms under Hyukjae’s waist, and hugged him tightly. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

 

“Sorry for what?” Hyukjae asked softly, his gloved hands running through Donghae’s hair.

 

“You don’t like your power and it upsets you. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

 

Hyukjae’s chest moved slightly under his ear in a laugh. “So your first thing is to hug it out?” he teased. “I could definitely get used to that reaction.”

 

Donghae relaxed against Hyukjae’s sturdy body, wanting almost to drift back off to sleep. The alarm going off again made him groan.

 

Hyukjae laughed again. “I know, but we really need to get up so you can get to Sungmin hyung before class.”

 

Donghae grunted a little. Now that he’d gotten _some_ sleep, his body was clamoring for more, and he knew that the longer he put off going to Sungmin, the less sleep he’d get. “Okay,” he finally said, defeated. “I really do want more sleep every night. You can grab first shower. I’m going to make some tea so I can stay awake in class.”

 

Hyukjae was in and out of the shower pretty quickly, just long enough for the water to heat. Leaving his tea soaking in hot water, he showered quickly, letting the slightly cool water wipe out the last of the sleep from his mind. Going back into the small kitchen once he was dressed in his school uniform, he waved back at Lami as she took a bite of kimchi from a container, recognizing the bright sun rising in the speech bubble to mean ‘good morning.’ She was already dressed for school and Hyukjae was brushing out her hair. Donghae watched as Hyukjae quickly braided her hair, missing being fussed over by Donghwa.

 

He looked back at Lami as she made the water-plop noise that he’d associated with her wanting his specific attention. Taking a sip of tea, he winced slightly at the strong taste, but tried to pay attention to Lami’s speech bubble. The clownfish was swimming listlessly around, almost looking like it was falling asleep. She whistled in that rising intonation that indicated a question.

 

“He hasn’t been sleeping well,” Hyukjae answered for him. “We’re going to leave early so we can go to Sungmin hyung before class.”

 

Lami nodded and took another bite of kimchi, then resealed the container to put it away. The clownfish erased and was replaced with a manga-style set of eyes hopping along towards a spinning apple.

 

Donghae guessed that the eyes represented Lami herself. It did kind of make sense with her being able to see visions of the future, but he did wonder why she didn’t talk.

 

“Okay,” Hyukjae agreed, hugging her shoulders. “We’ll go now, make sure to grab your workbooks and some more food from a store.”

 

Lami stuck out her tongue but her eyes were turned up in amusement. She hopped out of the seat to give Hyukjae a hug, then ran across to give Donghae a hug too. Donghae smiled as he soaked up the obvious affection, and the touches of loneliness he felt faded back.

 

Both he and Hyukjae double checked their bookbags for their homework before chorusing a goodbye to Lami as they left the apartment. They spent the journey down to Sungmin’s floor in a comfortable silence, stopping off to get some breakfast food that they ate in the elevator on the way down.

 

Sungmin was nursing a cup of coffee with his feet propped up on a gurney when they walked in. His head swiveled to look at them, his eyebrows rising.

 

“Either you two move _really_ fast or something else is wrong,” he said.

 

Donghae choked slightly at what Sungmin was implying. As he looked over at Hyukjae, he didn’t feel so bad about blushing since Hyukjae’s face was red.

 

“How do you know about what Lami saw?” Hyukjae asked, annoyance in his voice.

 

“Heenim told me, duh. Will you thank her for me? I was able to go ahead and order some basic supplies now, since the Ministry of Health is not exactly known for their speed in getting me needed items. Now what’s wrong with which one of you?”

 

Donghae sighed. “Me. I haven’t been sleeping well because I keep having nightmares.”

 

Sungmin stood up, taking a sip of his coffee. “All right, hop on up. How long has this been happening?”

 

“Ever since I activated. Well, the night after I woke up from that sleep.”

 

Sungmin coughed. “This has been going on for a full _week_?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Would it have something to do with activating?” Hyukjae asked, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth.

 

“I doubt it’s the process of activating itself. What are the nightmares about, Donghae?” Sungmin asked as he grabbed a stethoscope.

 

Donghae swallowed nervously. “About when I was taken from my house,” he answered quietly. “Whatever the branch of military the Ministry uses broke into my house and arrested me at gunpoint before throwing me in the back of a van. I’m kind of surprised that they didn’t break my arm from the high speed turns they were doing that were flinging me all over the place.”

 

Sungmin blinked at him a few times, blank shock covering his features. Donghae bit his lower lip, almost feeling like he’d shared too much. “They’re getting rougher,” Sungmin finally said. “I’ll pass that information on to Halmeoni. So the nightmares, where do they stop?”

 

Donghae shrugged. “I just feel the gun against my head and then I see a finger squeezing the trigger, but that’s when I wake up.”

 

“Can you go back to sleep after that?”

 

Donghae shook his head with a yawn. “I just have another one if I do.”

 

“Hm, you don’t seem as tired as you should be if you had stayed up all night. What changed last night?”

 

Donghae looked over at Hyukjae, pleading with his eyes.

 

“I woke up after he did. I think I asked about what made nightmares go away, and he would go sleep with his hyung. I’m surprised you didn’t know about the nightmares sooner since you stayed with him before he activated.”

 

“He never had them while either Heenim or I was with him,” Sungmin defended. He paused, his finger tapping against his lips. “Maybe that’s why you didn’t have them before Donghae? Because we were right there?”

 

Donghae shrugged. “Maybe?”

 

“Well you certainly didn’t have any problems getting back to sleep once you were on my bed,” Hyukjae pointed out. “But hyung, there’s no way he can sleep with me every night. There’s always the possibility that clothes can shift while we’re asleep and that could be dangerous…” Hyukjae trailed off as Sungmin held up a hand.

 

“Your power is not as dangerous as you think it is as I’ve told you before, but I don’t think you actually need to sleep in the same bed unless you want to. I slept on a cot next to the bed in the activation room and no nightmares. Maybe a simple room rearrangement is in order; shove your beds together and see how that works. I’d like to leave any sleeping pills for a last resort, but Donghae I’m giving you a pass out of your control session today. I want you to go see Sojin noona after class. Her office is in building three, fifth floor, pretty much anyone can point you in the right direction if you get lost.”

 

“What does she do?”

 

“She’s our resident mental health therapist. Talk things over with her and she’ll probably have a few suggestions on how to mitigate the nightmares. But you both better get to school before you’re late. Come and see me immediately tomorrow if you have another one, okay?”

 

Donghae nodded as he yawned. He definitely didn’t have a problem with that prescription and he was aching to get more sleep than what he had been. Sliding off the gurney, he grabbed his backpack and followed Hyukjae to the elevator.

 

“Please tell me you’re still as embarrassed as I am,” Hyukjae muttered while they waited.

 

“I’m surprised my face isn’t permanently red. Is everyone that… open?” Donghae whispered, glancing back over his shoulder.

 

Hyukjae sighed. “Yes and no? Lami is, apparently. But then again, time doesn’t work for her in a linear way. She sees something and since she knows it’s going to come true, she starts acting accordingly. Sungmin hyung is too because it’s his job, and Heenim yes, mostly because sunbae hears everything mentally, and they sometimes don’t know if it was spoken or thought. A lot of other people aren’t open like they are. It still doesn’t stop it from being embarrassing when they surprise you like that, though.”

 

Donghae blew out his breath. “Those seem to be the three people I’m around most often so far aside from you,” he muttered.

 

Hyukjae snorted a soft laugh. “You have my sympathies.”

 

The elevator arrived, and Donghae spent the entire ride back up to the sky bridge level trying not to fall asleep or going over to hug Hyukjae and falling asleep like that.

 

Hyukjae walked next to him as they crossed the sky bridge, but pointed towards a shop before they were to building two. “Come on, you’re going to need something stronger than tea to get through today.”

 

Donghae was quickly served a cup of coffee before they were practically sprinting for the school set up in building two. It really almost felt like he wasn’t in school at all, given that he technically _wasn’t_ as far as the government was concerned, but everyone in Home completed the equivalent of high school. Donghae had worked out that education was just as highly prized within Home as it was outside, and it did provide him a sense of stability and familiarity that helped him settle in.

 

He and Hyukjae arrived just in time for their basic core class, and after half a day, they would be allowed to study anything they wanted to. He sipped the coffee once it was cool enough, and he appreciated not only how he was so tired he only registered the presence of water without moving it, but also how the caffeine made him feel far more alert and awake afterwords.

 

Leaning back in his seat as they started their first break, he bit the corner of his lower lip in thought. “So what do we do after all of this?” he asked Hyukjae, waving a hand to encompass the classroom, which held everyone in the high school.

 

Hyukjae shrugged. “There’s nothing much to do aside from practice on our powers and study something. We can’t get into university since we can’t sit for the exams, and we’re not allowed to join the military. Since we’re in confinement, we don’t have much in the way of options. No jobs, no university, no duty to serve, just… nothing. Halmeoni encourages us to keep studying, just like we would if we went to university.”

 

Donghae breathed out a sigh. “Sounds kind of boring.”

 

“Boring, but safe,” a girl rejoined, having swiveled her chair around. “Can you imagine the discrimination that we would face out there? Especially those of us who can’t pass as anything close to ‘normal.’” She gestured to herself, probably referencing the claws where her nails should have been, her blue-tinted skin, and hair that looked more like plants.

 

“Kind of,” Donghae muttered. He knew he’d been fortunate to go through high school with only a few select people knowing his sexuality, but it had been stressful and a constant battle to not give anything away. Looking down quickly, he memorized the Kim Hyuna that was displayed on her name tag. “Didn’t mean any offense, I’m still getting used to this.”

 

She smiled. “None taken. You’ve only been here less than a week, after all. It does take a little time for adjustment for those of you who come from outside Home.”

 

Donghae blinked and barely suppressed a yawn. “You were born here?”

 

Hyuna nodded. “Thankfully. I don’t think anyone out there would have taken my mutation particularly well. Throw your kid into a pool and get a mermaid out,” she joked with her hand waving around.

 

Donghae felt a slight spurt of vindication. “See! I told you I wasn’t that special,” he told Hyukjae.

 

Hyukjae snorted. “Hyuna ssi can _survive_ in water, but she’s not an elemental like you.”

 

Hyuna’s eyes went wide and her mouth gaped, showing off slightly pointed teeth. “You’re a water _elemental_?” she nearly yelled, her surprise evident.

 

Donghae shrugged. “I guess? I don’t think it’s really anything special,” he demurred, feeling shy as everyone looked at him.

 

“I’ve _never_ heard of an elemental activating before. What’s it like?” another girl named Lee Sunkyu breathed.

 

“I don’t know?” Donghae replied, feeling a touch of panic. He jerked as he felt Hyukjae’s hand on his shoulder, but the nerves subsided.

 

“He’s still in control lessons,” Hyukjae said. “Don’t forget how new he is here and how long it took for all of you to settle into your powers.”

 

Various noises of agreement floated around, but Donghae noticed one of the other boys in class looking between him and Hyukjae speculatively, since Hyukjae’s hand was still on his shoulder. He felt a resurgence of the fear he always carried with him, not ever knowing how someone would react, especially when in the throes of homophobia.

 

“Class will begin now,” Teacher Park said, standing. Her eyes were lined in wrinkles and her hair graying, but she carried herself with the grace and agility of someone a few decades younger.

 

Donghae breathed out as everyone faced forward again and stopped paying attention to him, especially that boy. “Thanks,” he whispered to Hyukjae. “Who is that kid?” he asked, pointing under their table.

 

Hyukjae looked over, then forwards again. “Kim Jitae, why?”

 

“Please pay attention,” Teacher Park said while facing the board.

 

Donghae blushed and diligently applied himself to writing down notes. Flipping up a page, he wrote a quick note to Hyukjae. _He was looking at us weird, like he knew about me, well about us._

 

Hyukjae scratched down a few notes before writing a note back. _Knew what about you? Your handwriting is terrible, by the way._

 

Donghae debated if he wanted to write what was in his mind, but he finally told himself that it was rather pointless to try and hide it from Hyukjae. He really hoped that no one in the classroom was telepathic like Heenim. _That I’m gay_.

 

Hyukjae looked at him for a long second, then over to Jitae. It took a while for Hyukjae to respond, but when he did, Donghae couldn’t help the smile.

 

_Don’t worry, if he has a problem with it, we can draw straws to see who kicks his ass. He’ll have to get used to working with everyone or he won’t have much of a social circle in Home._

 

The rest of their class time passed without incident, and as Donghae walked to Sojin’s office, he wondered about how varied everyone’s powers were. Knocking on an open door, he clasped his fingers together.

 

A woman pushed bright red hair back as she looked up, then smiled. “Hello!” she chirped. “Lee Donghae, right?”

 

Donghae nodded.

 

“Please, come in. Sungminnie told me to expect you.” She rose out of the chair to hang a sign on the door before closing and locking it. “Though I’ve been told what the problem is, I would prefer to hear it from you.”

 

Donghae swallowed nervously as he sat down in a comfortable chair, but there was something about Sojin that set him at ease, and he _really_ wanted more sleep. “I’ve been having really bad nightmares for a week.”

 

Sojin held out her hands. “May I have skin contact please? I’m a touch empath, and it’s easier for me to understand what you feel when I can experience it as well.”

 

Donghae placed his hands in hers, noting that they were soft and warm.

 

“Tell me about the nightmares, what happens?” Sojin’s voice was soft and soothing, relaxing him.

 

“I hear the military people breaking in, just like I did when they broke into my house, and then when they get to my room again, I’m up against the wall and scared because they have guns like I’m someone dangerous. I just see one of those weapons come up and press against my forehead then a finger starting to squeeze the trigger.” He shook his head, the fear coming back to him. “Then I wake up.”

 

Sojin’s eyes had closed while he practically relived his dreams once more, but he wasn’t as afraid as he had been. The nightmare seemed like it was moving away from him, losing its sense of immediacy and seeming more like a scary movie than something that had actually happened to him.

 

“I can see how that nightmare would come to pass,” Sojin replied, her eyes opening. “I sense a deep exhaustion and a fear that lurks behind it. Are you afraid now?”

 

Donghae shook his head. “I’m scared when I have the dream. Right now, it just seems like a scary movie.”

 

She smiled. “Good. Since it’s only a movie, you can turn it off. You don’t have to watch it all the way through.”

 

“What if I have another nightmare tonight?” Donghae asked, the corners of his lips turning down.

 

Sojin raised her eyebrows briefly, but the smile stayed. “There might be a few things I can suggest, let’s see which one you prefer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos are appreciated, do the good things in life.


	3. .three

Both of Sungmin’s prescriptions had worked magnificently, and Donghae noticed rapid improvement in his control sessions once he was able to sleep soundly through the night. He had a plan to catch up on sleep over a weekend, but when he was pulled out of a sound sleep the first weekend after the nightmares had stopped, he was distinctly unhappy.

 

“Whaaaat,” he whined loudly in response to being shaken awake. “I want to sleep…”

 

_Keep your voice down,_ he ‘heard’ in a mental voice. Cracking his eyes open, he looked up at Hyukjae, who had been the one to shake him.

 

“Shh,” Hyukjae warned, holding a gloved finger up to his lips. “Heenim sunbae says to get up and get dressed fast. Sunbae brought some new clothes for both of us, so wear that, but pack an extra pair of clothes in my bag.”

 

“What’s going on?” Donghae quietly slurred, not really fully awake yet.

 

Hyukjae shrugged in the dark room. “I don’t know, but sunbae wants both of us for something.”

 

_Hurry up Donghae, we’re going to miss our ride if we don’t leave soon._

 

Responding to the urgency and need for silence, he grabbed the clothes Hyukjae handed him and started to pull off his pajama shirt. He grinned as Hyukjae turned around, embarrassed. Grabbing some clothes that were a decent match for what he had on, he waited for Hyukjae to slowly open their bedroom door before they cautiously crept past Lami’s room.

 

Heenim was lounging comfortably on one of their chairs in the kitchen area, flipping through a small notebook. “Good, there you are,” they greeted, keeping their voice soft.

 

Donghae noticed that someone else was there too, with long hair pulled into a braid, and as she turned around, she smiled.

 

“Good morning Hyukjae hyung.”

 

Her voice was light and teasing, but pitched lower than what Donghae was used to hearing.

 

Hyukjae sighed, a smile spreading across his lips, and Donghae was surprised at the jealousy that shot through him. Frowning to himself, he went to Hyukjae’s backpack and put his extra clothes in there.

 

“Good morning to you too, Hani oppa. Are you going to stay with Lami?”

 

She nodded. “I even brought sweets to help soothe her temper.”

 

Hyukjae rolled his eyes expressively. “Yeah, please don’t remind me of how much both of us are going to get the silent treatment when we get back.”

 

“Hopefully we’ll be able to stop off and get enough candy for both of you to work your way back into her good graces,” Heenim said, standing. Their hair was pulled back into a short ponytail and dressed much the same as Donghae and Hyukjae were, appearing more masculine than their normal preference. “Let’s not risk her waking up and demanding to go too, out the door with the both of you.”

 

“Bye hyungs,” Hani chirped quietly.

 

Donghae raised his eyebrows curiously at Heenim, who shrugged. “I’ll accept Heeyeon calling me hyung because she is my sister and reverses her honorifics, which is a rather perverse pleasure for me. Everyone else will still use sunbae.”

 

“You call her oppa, too,” Hyukjae said, stepping into the elevator.

 

“Indeed I do.” Heenim pushed a high level, then stood back as the doors closed and the elevator began to rise.

 

“Why do you call her Hani though?” Donghae asked, confused about the nickname.

 

“Heeyeon and I share a mother, but not a father. Her legal name is Ahn Heeyeon, so I made a word pun with the first two sounds of her name and she liked it. Even though she identifies as feminine, she likes to play with gender roles a bit and she has many habits that are traditionally considered masculine, so I teasingly call her Hani oppa. Everyone else in Home has also picked up that habit.”

 

They exited out onto the sky bridge level, which was mostly quiet and darkened, the lights from Seoul shining in and providing the light to move around.

 

“What are we doing?” Donghae whispered.

 

“We’re on a field trip at the request of Halmeoni,” Heenim whispered back. “Building one,” they directed when Hyukjae pointed around.

 

Donghae was reluctant to break the silence they’d fallen into as they walked into building one and then waited for the elevator. Heenim waved a card over a plain piece of metal, but Donghae gaped a little as several digital buttons lit up after the card passed by. Heenim picked the one that said nothing more than _sub6_ , and the elevator swiftly descended. Pulling a flashlight out, they turned it on before the doors opened into darkness.

 

“Follow closely,” they warned before leading a path out. Donghae wrinkled his nose from the musty, wet smell around him, but from the water, he could mentally map of the dimensions of the hallway. He grabbed the back of Hyukjae’s shirt, not wanting to get lost as he concentrated on applying his control lesson of feeling the water around him without moving it. Hyukjae’s gloved hand grabbed his hand and held it, making him smile.

 

They both stopped when Heenim turned off the flashlight.

 

_Donghae, you lead us the rest of the way out so the flashlight doesn’t alert anyone to our presence. No talking until we’re in the station, and while we’re out there, you both will address me as Heechul and hyung if we are around anyone but ourselves. Hyukjae, gloves off until we’re back, it’s too warm and will draw attention. We’re going to Yongyu Station in Incheon, please make sure that we’re on the right trains._

 

Donghae nodded, stepping forward while his eyes closed. He had a good map of the tunnel for the next hundred meters, but he could see a slight glow where his mental mapping ended because everything dried out. Moving forward, he felt a long-fingered hand curl into his and guessed Heenim had done that to make sure everyone was there.

 

_Not only that, but it’s also to help me deal with the massive bombardment I’m going to be facing from anyone around. Keep any answers or questions open in your mind for me to boost it so Hyukjae can hear them as well._

 

The moisture ended right as the glow from beyond a wall filtered in and provided enough light to see. Heenim tugged on Donghae’s hand for a moment, their eyebrows furrowed and eyes closed.

 

_Move._

 

Donghae moved quickly forward, slipping through a well-hidden crack behind a vending machine and entering a subway station. Heenim and Hyukjae appeared next to him, and Donghae immediately looked up at the station display. They had appeared in Oksu station and he was bewildered as to which aisle to walk through. He looked down at his hand when he felt something hard press into it, and blinked curiously at the T-money card.

 

“Don’t lose it, or you’re walking back to Seoul,” Heenim warned.

 

Donghae twisted his lips down. “Where are we going?” he asked Hyukjae, who was reading a map, his knuckles white since they were tight around the straps of the backpack.

 

Hyukjae pointed in a particular direction. “The Gupabal train is the one we want. It’ll connect with the line that’ll take us to Incheon.”

 

Heenim waved a hand. “Lead the way.”

 

Waving the cards over the aisle reader, they trekked down a set of stairs. Halfway down, Heenim grabbed Donghae’s hand and slid sunglasses on after taking the bag from Hyukjae.

 

_I’m hungover and you two are helping me home if anyone asks. Thankfully, we should be mostly alone at this hour, so I doubt it’ll come up._ _The reason we’re headed out to Incheon is that your registration is coming up, Donghae. Before the Ministry deigns to come into Home to try and posture to make themselves feel better, Halmeoni wants to know just how powerful you can really get, hence why Hyukjae is coming along._

 

Donghae felt a faint echo of shock come through Heenim’s mental communication. He tried to figure out how to keep communication open and still ask a question, and finally just ‘spoke’ inside his head. _What happens after registration? Do I get put back into that plastic prison cell?_

 

He saw Heenim glance at him. _Pull up the memory for me, please._

 

Closing his eyes, he dredged up the memory of being held in Mokpo, locked inside a plastic prison sphere that was heavily isolated, barely fed once a day and was only allowed a visit from his mother the day before he was unknowingly shipped off to Seoul. The thought of his mother made him worried – did she think he was dead? Did she know that he was okay and alive?

 

_Relax, Halmeoni is consistent with getting word to families. Your mother probably already has an address for you to send letters whenever the Ministry feels like delivering them, along with updates about some of your progress. But yet another example of things I detest about the Ministry_ , Heenim replied in his mind. _No, they will not be taking you from Home or subjecting you to whatever horror they can dream up. They want to keep Hyukjae locked away for all time, and you can see how well that is working for them._

 

Donghae watched the display time for a few seconds. _Okay why? I can’t figure out why._

 

Hyukjae’s voice whispered through his mind, sounding soft and far away, but Heenim was obviously boosting the thoughts so that Donghae could hear them. _Imagine it, Donghae. I take any power, with any person, and boost it, magnify it, beyond all reasonable comprehension. I’m the dangerous one because of something I can’t even control or turn off._

 

Donghae thought about it for a long few minutes, long enough for the train to arrive. When the realization did hit him about why Hyukjae was considered so dangerous, he couldn’t help the soft “ _Oh_.”

 

Heenim’s lips were curved upward. _Now you’re getting it. You also get to experience it firsthand._

 

Their ride to the station where they would switch trains was spent in silence, Heenim pinching the bridge of their nose as they pulled into each station. Donghae felt a wave of pity for them. Not being able to turn off a power and having to filter every single thought that flew by from every person who would be worried or happy or any range of emotions would probably make him have a breakdown. His own thoughts could give him a headache; he couldn’t imagine how Heenim managed to spend every day not in absolute agony.

 

He felt a long fingered hand brush along his skin before Heenim slid their hand into his. _Continual usage and learning how to shield myself from all but the loudest thoughts. The breakdown was a near miss though. Home is small, but there’s still a lot of thoughts to filter through. It would have been horrific to learn any form of control if I wasn’t in Home when I activated._

 

Donghae grunted an agreement to the ‘whispered’ thoughts in his head.

 

_Being able to have skin contact with one person also does help. Everyone has natural mental barriers, so it helps buffer my own._

 

He looked over at Hyukjae when he felt the tap on his shoulder. “This is our stop. Can you stand on your own, hyung?”

 

Heenim grunted, but slowly shuffled to his feet, swaying for effect. The few people that were in the car with them had looked over at the movement, but shifted their attention as they told themselves what they wanted to understand about the three of them. Donghae wrapped a hand around Heenim’s waist and draped a slender arm across his shoulders.

 

“You can lean on me.”

 

Hyukjae frowned a little at him. “I was about to do that,” he mock complained.

 

Donghae smiled. “You’re still drunk. Besides, I’m stronger than you.”

 

“In what universe,” Hyukjae immediately retorted. Donghae had the sudden mental image of Heenim rolling about on a floor, laughing silently.

 

_Keep it up, it’s a great cover._ Heenim said mentally. Physically, they groaned and leaned heavily on Donghae.

 

“In this one,” Donghae needled. “I could carry hyung _and_ you at the same time,” he boasted. “Your skinny butt would break in half.”

 

“Shut up both of you,” Heenim growled. “You’re making my headache worse.”

 

“Yes hyung,” Donghae and Hyukjae chorused, looking properly chastised. Mentally, Heenim was clapping and throwing roses at him. Donghae steadied himself as the train slowed down, then came to a stop. They changed trains with little difficulty, and it was a long ride to Incheon.

 

Donghae had never been to Yongyu before, but he followed Heenim and Hyukjae through the nearly empty station. He was so grateful he wasn’t having to try and get around on his own, certain he’d just go straight to the water, probably bumping into buildings and crossing roads in a daze from the straight line path he wanted to take.

 

_Don’t get all water brained yet_ , Heenim warned, amusement clear. Their head jerked slightly, like someone had just called their name. _Follow me, our contact is waiting on us._ Heenim’s transformation from a hungover shuffle to confident strides was nearly instantaneous, and they slid their sunglasses up to hold the few strands of hair back and off their face.

 

Donghae almost felt like he’d landed in a James Bond movie as they exited the station and into near darkness, lit only by streetlights. Heenim pulled some money out of an envelope as they neared a convenience store. “Get enough food for the entire day, including snacks and drinks, for all of us,” they said, handing Donghae the money. “I’ll be right outside in the alleyway.”

 

Donghae bounced up the stairs, replying courteously to the attendant when they called out a greeting. Moving immediately back to the drinks, Donghae grabbed several bottles of water while Hyukjae deliberated over food choices. Donghae grabbed a few sugary snacks and his favorite sandwiches, mentally adding up their total.

 

Hyukjae laughed a little. “What are you doing?”

 

Finally getting an amount, he carefully counted the money Heenim gave him. “Damn, we need to put something back, we’re not going to have enough money.”

 

“Did you just add everything up in your head?”

 

“Yeah, it’s pretty easy for me,” Donghae shrugged, grabbing one of the snacks he’d picked out and putting it back. “Okay, we’re good now. Let’s go pay.”

 

Hyukjae looked impressed as the total on the register came up to be just under the amount Heenim had given them. Donghae looked over as he noticed movement and bowed his head to the elderly man shuffling in the side door while the attendant called out a greeting as they were packing everything into plastic bags.

 

“Thank you!” Donghae chirped brightly as he and Hyukjae grabbed a bag each and walked out the main door.

 

_Turn left_ , Donghae heard in his mind, and following Heenim’s instructions, came into the alleyway where Heenim was waiting on them, standing just past the glow of the convenience store’s side door.

 

“Come on,” Heenim said, waving a hand to indicate going through the alleyway. “We need to get to the boat. It’s not too far away.”

 

“Boat?” Hyukjae repeated.

 

“Yes. Be quiet and move, I want to get out of here before people start showing up to enjoy a day at the beach,” Heenim hissed, waving their hand.

 

Donghae shared a puzzled look with Hyukjae and they both shrugged before they were following Heenim. Just as Heenim said, the boat wasn’t docked very far away and they were able to get to it with little difficulty. They boarded the boat, and while Heenim started the engines, Donghae unwound the rope that kept the boat tied to the dock. This early in the morning, with the sun barely beginning to rise behind them, the air still had a bit of a bite to it, even with the humidity-laden winds coming up from the south. Donghae shivered as they started to move and picked up speed, trying to burrow into his light jacket.

 

Hyukjae looked at him, apparently sharing in his misery, his bare hands shoved between his knees and shoulders hunched against the direction they were going to try and retain some warmth.

 

“I should have brought my parka,” Donghae yelled to be heard above the wind and the motor.

 

_Sit on the floor if the both of you are that cold. It should be warming up shortly._

 

Donghae immediately sank down to the floor, wedging himself closer to Heenim, figuring the wind wouldn’t be as much of an issue towards the front of the boat. Seeing Hyukjae huddling uncomfortably towards the back, Donghae motioned him up to where he was. Hyukjae crawled forward and Donghae tried to make enough room in the small warmer area. It wasn’t balmy, but at least Donghae didn’t feel like he was going to turn into an ice cube anymore. He wished the sun would rise faster to start heating up the air, but he appreciated the changing colors in the sky as the sun started to peek over the mountains.

 

As close as they were to each other, Donghae could hear Hyukjae’s whine before he buried his cold face on Donghae’s shoulder. Donghae pulled the hood of his jacket up over his head and worked the fabric from underneath Hyukjae’s nose to wrap a bit over the red ears. He felt more than heard Hyukjae’s sigh of satisfaction, the wet, hot gust of air ghosting near his neck.

 

They shared body heat for the entire ride, only changing position when they wanted to be warmer. Hyukjae had straightened, stripping off his jacket and draping it over his head, but holding the edge closest to Donghae up.

 

“Do what I did,” Hyukjae shouted.

 

Donghae stripped his jacket, curses flying through his mind at the biting cold, but pulled it on over his head, flopping the empty arm over Hyukjae’s jacket to hold it in place. There was a crack where the jackets didn’t quite meet, but it let fresh air inside. Donghae relaxed a bit as his bare skin didn’t register being as cold as he had been.

 

They were both very tired, if the constant yawns were an indication, and Donghae’s cheeks were starting to sting from the cold and his lips were getting chapped. Even though Hyukjae was very easy to talk to, he wasn’t really in the mood for a conversation.

 

He listened to the sound of the powerful motor vibrating the entire boat and watched the water churn behind them, letting himself get distracted by the volume of water he was currently speeding across. It was almost unfathomable how much water there was everywhere, spraying up on the surface and being parted by the boat. He could tell the difference between the fish and the silt just by how big the gaps they made in the water, and a deep water current made him laugh a little. He imagined the current as a flow of traffic and the facetious thought of a stoplight letting it through while stopping other traffic from crossing it was amusing.

 

As they slowed down, Donghae felt brave enough to pull his jacket down and look at where they had arrived. Heenim was slowing the boat as they neared the shore of one of the uninhabited islands around Incheon and then finally beached it at a spot where it could easily be pushed back out.

 

“Okay, we’re here,” Heenim said, turning off the engine and pocketing the keys. They grabbed the backpack, then immediately hopped up onto the prow of the boat to jump off, landing gracefully on the sand. Donghae wondered why they didn’t seem affected by the cold.

 

Donghae looked at Hyukjae, who shrugged. They followed Heenim’s example, looking around. There was a line of trees not too far from the beach they were on, their leaves shading some of the sand.

 

“What are we doing?” Donghae asked, completely at a loss of what Heenim wanted from him.

 

“Holding hands for a while,” Heenim smoothly replied, withdrawing a small blanket and spreading it out on the sand. “Yes Hyukjae that does mean no gloves, they’re staying in the backpack until we’re back at Home.”

 

Seeing the near-panic on Hyukjae’s face, Donghae walked closer to Heenim and sat down on a corner of the blanket. “I really don’t get why we’re doing this. You said something about registration, but why? What is that?”

 

Heenim sighed and motioned Hyukjae to sit down as well. “Registration is something that was jammed through during the last martial law and it unfortunately stuck. We are obligated by law to have an entry on file with the Ministry detailing our powers, with samples of our DNA and fingerprints. It’s to make sure that we are always inside Home without any of the fancy language politicians use to bullshit about it being for our protection in case anything untoward happens.”

 

Donghae felt dread crawl through his stomach. “Do I have to?”

 

“Unfortunately, yes. The Ministry brought you to Home, and they’ve spent practically every day reminding us of a law we know very well. But this isn’t for them. This is so we know what to expect when Lami’s vision becomes reality for the rest of us. Hopefully your control over your power will be enough by that time that you won’t drown half of Seoul when you have an orgasm.”

 

Donghae felt his entire face flush as he buried his head onto his knees and covered it with his arms from the deep embarrassment.

 

“ _Sunbae_ ,” Hyukjae whined loudly.

 

“What?” Heenim returned. “There’s no one around for kilometers, and Lami’s vision was extremely clear. You both get to skip all of the unnecessary shit that everyone else aside from me has to go through when it comes to relationships. There’s no question as to your attraction to each other, and Lami already has Donghae mentally labeled as family. I’m going to reasonably assume that there’s some romantic feelings involved, and that it’s something long term. It’s just a fact that you’re going to have sex at some point. Halmeoni and I would just rather not be surprised at what happens when you do.”

 

“Why did you even tell them?” Hyukjae hissed.

 

Donghae guessed that Hyukjae meant Sungmin and Halmeoni. Heenim sighed, rolling their eyes.

 

“Why do you think, Hyukjae?” they snapped. “I don’t want either of you getting hurt when your relationship goes physical and your hormones override your senses and I don’t want anyone else getting hurt either! Halmeoni is the one damn person in Home that can keep the fucking Ministry out of your personal lives and everyone else is up to you. Now go hold hands.”

 

“But you’re putting someone who activated less than three weeks ago in danger!” Hyukjae exploded.

 

Heenim looked unimpressed with Hyukjae’s outburst. “Your power is not dangerous, no matter what the Vice Minister imprinted on you. That damn guilt block you’ve got from that bastard is probably half the reason why your control absolutely _stinks_.”

 

With an inarticulate noise of frustration, Hyukjae got up and stalked further down the beach.

 

Donghae looked around, confused and slightly uncomfortable at the argument between two people who he liked, and he wondered if he should stay where he was or go over to Hyukjae, who was throwing rocks into the water. Heenim shrugged and stretched out on the blanket, flipping their sunglasses down to shield their eyes. “He’ll cool down in a little bit,” they said. “If you want to go over there, take my advice and just wait for him to start talking.”

 

He hesitated a moment or two, but finally stood up and brushed the sand off his butt. Walking slowly, he listened to the waves gently lapping at the shore and the angrier sound of rocks hitting the water and either plopping below the surface or skipping a few times before sinking. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he stopped next to Hyukjae and watched him throwing rocks in his anger.

 

“I can’t fucking believe that everyone is being so cavalier about this,” Hyukjae muttered as he threw another rock. “They _know_ that my power is dangerous, but they’re treating this as no big deal.”

 

Donghae just nodded slightly, but stayed silent.

 

Hyukjae bent down to grab another rock, but as he stood up, he let it fall from his fingers. “This is so messed up. Three weeks ago, everything was normal and now everything is upside down and backwards,” he complained, clearly upset.

 

Donghae frowned and hunched his shoulders a little. “Sorry,” he mumbled. If he’d just skipped that day at school like he’d wanted to and hadn’t been so driven to bring up his chemistry grade, he would have missed that damned test and the major upheaval in Hyukjae’s life wouldn’t have happened.

 

Hyukjae sighed heavily. “No, it’s not your fault. I’m just… I’m having a harder time adjusting than I really should be having. _Weird_ is just part of life at Home, but every time someone brings up Lami’s vision about us it reminds me that this is a lot weirder than most things.” He sat down heavily on the sand, setting his elbows on his knees and shoving his bare fingers into his hair.

 

Donghae sat down next to Hyukjae, not really sure if he should or not.

 

“I haven’t had skin contact with anyone in five years,” Hyukjae finally said, his voice hitching. Donghae looked over and saw Hyukjae bite his bottom lip. “Not since I activated Lami.”

 

Donghae’s eyes widened. “How?”

 

Hyukjae laughed bitterly. “Mom told me to read her a bedtime story, and after I was done, she wanted a goodnight kiss. I gave her one.” He shook his head, his lips pursing and then relaxing. “I caused her to experience the most intense clairvoyant episode she’s ever had when she was _six_.”

 

Donghae turned towards Hyukjae, setting his elbows on his crossed legs and resting his chin on his fingers. “She doesn’t seem like she blames you,” he offered.

 

Hyukjae sighed tiredly and hugged his knees. “She never has. I should have realized something was wrong rather than thinking I just had a headache. I can’t believe I was so _stupid_ I should have just let noona read her a story like normal. She wouldn’t have spent a week in a coma and two _years_ floating around like a ghost in Home. She could have been _fine_ and _talking_ instead of just now being able to make noise in the past year if it wasn’t for me.” Hyukjae was crying, angrily rubbing the tears off his cheeks, and Donghae hesitated only slightly in reaching out and putting his hand on Hyukjae’s shoulder.

 

They sat there like that for several minutes until Hyukjae hiccupped and sniffed, wiping the last tears off his face. “Sorry, I don’t normally unload like that. It’s just that it feels like everything is moving so fast and I can’t keep up.”

 

Donghae shrugged, dropping his hand. “I know what you mean. A couple of months ago, I was still living in Mokpo, worrying about my chemistry grade and kicking myself mentally for mixing up phones with hyung.” Donghae looked out over the ocean, then back to Hyukjae, who was staring at him with bloodshot, puffy eyes. “Do you want to be friends?” he suddenly asked.

 

Hyukjae’s laugh was watery, but at least it wasn’t that bitter bark. “Yes, I’d like to be friends with you Donghae.” He paused for a minute, but a small smile tilted his lips. “I’d really like to be friends before we do anything else.”

 

Donghae smiled back, feeling relieved that Hyukjae just wasn’t wanting to jump into a relationship or anything. “Me too,” he said. “Is what happened to Lami why you said that the Ministry told you that you couldn’t touch anyone?”

 

Hyukjae furrowed his eyebrows. “When did I say that?”

 

“The night I had the last nightmare,” Donghae shrugged.

 

“Oh. Sorry, I tend to just say whatever comes into my mind when I first get woken up. The Ministry doesn’t want me to ever have skin contact with anyone, period, not because of what happened to Lami though. But I guess I’m going to be tossing that one to the wayside today.”

 

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Donghae replied quietly.

 

Hyukjae sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging. “No, Heenim did make a good point. How powerful do you get when we come into contact and how much can you control it? It doesn’t really matter if it happens tomorrow or ten years from now, Lami’s vision is going to come true. So I guess we’d better be prepared for what happens.” He offered his hand, palm up.

 

Donghae could see the fear and concern written all over Hyukjae’s face, but his hand didn’t shake. “Are you okay with it though?”

 

Again, Hyukjae laughed. “Yes, I’m just _really_ hoping you’ll be okay and that Lami not being able to talk was just because she was so young when she activated.”

 

Donghae bit his lip and cautiously reached out, ready to pull back his hand if Hyukjae got too nervous. He felt the tips of his fingers brush Hyukjae’s palm, and he froze as his sense of the water expanded and grew beyond his comprehension, then abruptly shrunk down as Hyukjae yanked his hand away.

 

“Are you okay?” he asked, worry and fear clashing in his voice.

 

Donghae took a couple of deep breaths and nodded. He blinked, suddenly aware his eyes were getting dried out. “ _Wow_ ,” he said, his jaw dropping. He felt loopy and confused, like he’d just taken an antihistamine, but also like the world had just tilted on its axis. “ _Wow_ ,” he repeated. “I was _not_ expecting that!” He had to consciously slow his breathing, feeling like he was getting light headed. “Holy crap,” he muttered, watching his hand shake. “I’m okay,” he assured Hyukjae, who was hovering worriedly over him. “I just wasn’t expecting _that_. Wow.”

 

Hyukjae blew out an amused huff of air. “You keep saying that.”

 

“It’s all I really can say,” Donghae joked, shaking his head. “Oh… Hey! I’m okay!” he laughed as he realized that he was totally in one piece and talking.

 

Hyukjae smiled, his gums peeking out. “Yeah, you’re okay,” he repeated. “You made this really weird noise at first and it scared me.”

 

Donghae shook his head again, feeling like he was trying to get his bearings. “Yeah, I was just really surprised. I can’t even describe what that felt like, but I know what to expect now, so I think I’ll be better at handling it if we do it again.”

 

“Maybe after I get over the heart attack you gave me with that noise,” Hyukjae joked as he sat back down, crossing his legs and leaning on his knees. He licked his lips as he held out his hand again. “Ready?”

 

Donghae nodded and reached out to put his hand in Hyukjae’s. He unfocused as once again his power grew and expanded, almost feeling like it was going to burst out of him. What he told Hyukjae was true – he really couldn’t describe everything; feeling the water in his body, in Hyukjae’s body, the water practically being _alive_ in the ocean, knowing where fishing trawlers were and shipping containers were, along with all of the fish and plants underwater. He could sense every drop of water in the air and just when it got to be too much, he yanked back his hand. He felt almost power drunk and overwhelmed at the same time.

 

“That’s intense,” he said. “There’s so much water everywhere and it’s really distracting.”

 

Hyukjae slowly breathed out, but smiled. “Maybe you need something else to focus on in that case.”

 

Donghae shrugged. “Maybe later. You’re probably half freaked out still.”

 

“A little, yeah,” Hyukjae replied, his shoulders relaxing. “It’s hard to turn off five years of fear in less than thirty minutes, but at the same time I really want to be running around and yelling because you seem to be fine and I didn’t make you stop talking or just lose yourself.”

 

Donghae shrugged, absently picking up a rock and turning it over in his hands. “I mean, I’m not going to lie, I kind of do get lost and overwhelmed with all the water. Maybe it’s because I’m so new to this and I don’t really have a lot of control?”

 

“Could be,” Hyukjae murmured. “Can’t you normally get overwhelmed with all the water anyway?”

 

Donghae nodded. “Yeah. You saw how it took me a few days to stop getting distracted every other minute or two because of the water in my body and just everywhere. I guess it’s a matter of learning how to ignore all of the background stuff and just use what I want. I still have no idea what I can do with this.”

 

Hyukjae shrugged, bouncing a knee slightly. “I’m guessing you can move it, since you already said that you think you’re just a kinetic limited to water.”

 

“Yeah, I made a _really_ big splash when Sungmin hyung pushed me into the pool.”

 

Hyukjae leaned back, bracing himself with his arms. “Well, you could be like Katara, you know.”

 

Donghae pursed his lips in thought, trying to remember what the cartoon showed. “I don’t think I really want to try blood bending, even though I know I probably could because if I can sense the water in a body, I can probably move it. I know I can’t do the healing she did either, because Heenim sunbae said that my brain felt dead and flat when I was using the medical testers.”

 

“Well, she could make ice out of the water and walk on the water, too.”

 

“And purify it, right?” Donghae asked.

 

“I think so,” Hyukjae murmured. “I remember she could make waterspouts and huge waves. Didn’t the Polar Tribes make their giant ice walls?”

 

“I can’t remember, but I can try that at some point.”

 

Hyukjae tilted his head. “Can you see underwater?”

 

“I don’t know. I know I can sense what’s in the water and sort of make a map of it in my mind, but I don’t know about opening my eyes underwater and seeing things.”

 

“Some of the stuff in the ocean I don’t _ever_ want to see,” Hyukjae laughed. “That stuff in the deep ocean can stay there.”

 

Donghae laughed, reminded of seeing a picture of an anglerfish and hearing tales of giant squid. “Yeah, I can agree with that. Especially the giant squids.”

 

“Please never pull one up,” Hyukjae said. “Those things are scary.”

 

They fell into a comfortable silence, watching the water for a while.

 

“Hey Donghae, can I ask you something?”

 

Donghae grunted an affirmative noise.

 

“Um… how did you know you were… you know.” Hyukjae stammered, waving his hand in the air.

 

“That I’m gay?” Donghae asked, still somewhat scared to say it out loud.

 

“Yeah?” Hyukjae’s face was red and Donghae suspected that it wasn’t just because of the sun.

 

“I don’t know, I’ve just always kind of known something, even if I didn’t want to admit it. But when I was about thirteen or fourteen, I realized that I was getting turned on by other guys. I tried to fit in with all of my friends and tried to like girls, but it felt… hollow, you know? Like it didn’t really fit.” He sighed. “But I was always far more attracted to my male friends than I was to girls, no matter what I did.”

 

“Oh,” Hyukjae breathed.

 

Donghae let the silence settle between them again, trying to calm his own emotions and remind himself that he was on an uninhabited island with someone who didn’t align with a gender and a guy who he was probably going to have a relationship with. Fear had absolutely no place right there and then.

 

“I like girls, but…” Hyukjae started, then stopped. “But I like boys too,” Hyukjae whispered, barely heard over the water.

 

Donghae looked over. Hyukjae was pale, as if the quiet confession had drained everything from him. “It’s scary to say it out loud isn’t it?”

 

“Yeah,” Hyukjae said, exhaling his breath in a gust. “I’ve never actually told anyone that before.”

 

“Your family doesn’t know?” Donghae asked.

 

“No, well aside from Lami. Yours?”

 

“Yeah,” Donghae answered easily. “I couldn’t handle hiding it from them. I think that was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life, though.”

 

“How did they take it?” Hyukjae asked, worrying the corner of his lip with his teeth.

 

Donghae laughed. “My dad was kind out of it from his medication, and when I told him, he asked me if water was wet too. Apparently I was far less subtle to my family than I thought I was. It took some adjusting, but they took it pretty well. I think I would have gone crazy in high school if it wasn’t for them.”

 

Hyukjae sighed, his fingers nervously plucking at his jeans. “I can only hope that my family takes it as well as yours did. Either way, it’s going to be a really awkward Chuseok.”

 

“What happens on Chuseok?” Donghae asked.

 

“It’s the yearly allowed visit we get from our families that aren’t in Home,” Hyukjae explained as he straightened up. “I just hope I have time to tell the rest of my family before Lami manages to blurt it out.”

 

“Her thing about time not working linear?” Donghae asked.

 

“Yeah. She thinks everyone knows something and doesn’t realize that it hasn’t happened yet.”

 

Donghae snorted a laugh. “I think my brain just twisted into a pretzel from that.”

 

Hyukjae stretched his hand towards Donghae. “Want to try again since we’re just talking? Let’s see if you can carry on a conversation,” he teased.

 

Donghae put his hand in Hyukjae’s and he tried to let the sense of expansion wash over him so he could focus on what Hyukjae was saying.

 

“It’s really weird. It’s like I’m scared but not when you touch me. I guess it’s from knowing Lami thinks it’s okay for us to do it.”

 

Donghae felt like he was gargling water for a second, but he found his voice once more. “I think that’s some of it,” he answered. “But also seeing me not have any bad effects while you are touching me helps.”

 

Hyukjae laughed. “I hope that made sense to you.”

 

Donghae snorted, a little startled when the water in front of him moved, parting and then coming back together. “Okay that was weird,” he noted, frowning at a small cloud that formed in front of him.

 

“You’ve got to be doing that,” Hyukjae commented.

 

“I’m trying not to,” Donghae defended, trying to make the cloud dissipate back into the humidity it was. Waving his free hand at it only made it grow bigger, so he stopped moving and puffed out his cheeks. “Will you please go away?” he cutely asked the cloud, which promptly started raining, darkening the sand under it.

 

Hyukjae laughed loudly. “I think you hurt its feelings.”

 

Donghae laughed as well, seeing the humor in the situation. “I know I’m making it, but I’m trying not to.” He froze as he felt a hard prod in his mind, something that he immediately associated with activation. “That hurt!” he yelled, directing his voice to where Heenim last was.

 

“Sorry,” Heenim replied audibly as they walked over to where he and Hyukjae were sitting. Shaking out the blanket, they found a nice shady spot near where Donghae and Hyukjae were sitting and promptly began lounging again.

 

“You really _are_ a cat,” Donghae commented.

 

Heenim merely smiled. “I maintain that I was one in a previous life,” they joked. “Since I was already inadvertently eavesdropping, I might as well just sit here and eavesdrop physically. Please continue on with what you were doing.”

 

Hyukjae tilted his head. “Were we thinking loudly?”

 

“If by ‘loud’ you mean shouting in a library, yes. On that count, I will apologize for not telling you both first about telling Sungmin and Halmeoni, but I will not apologize about telling the two people who have a need to know.”

 

Hyukjae sighed. “I know why you did and that your reasons were sound. If I really thought about it, Lami’s far more likely to tell everyone because she has absolutely no concept that her vision isn’t reality yet.”

 

Donghae smiled a little, relieved that the argument had been cleared up.

 

“Donghae, remember your control lessons please. You’re gathering moisture.”

 

He yelped when he noticed clouds were forming around him. He was completely at a loss when the clouds burst like fireworks, sending water droplets outward from him almost before his voice faded. Hyukjae looked as if he’d just walked under a fire sprinkler and Heenim looked mildly annoyed as they flicked wet hair off their face.

 

“Sorry,” he winced, shyly pulling his hand from Hyukjae’s. He had to take a moment to readjust to the abrupt shrinking of his powers again back to what he considered normal.

 

Heenim sighed heavily. “Well, at least it wasn’t ice, but that was an interesting self-defense strategy if you were looking for one.”

 

_Don’t guilt block yourself. It’s just water and will dry,_ Heenim told him mentally. _I was more surprised than anything else._

 

“Why do I feel like I just got a vision of my future,” Hyukjae commented, a droll tone to his voice.

 

Donghae couldn’t help the laugh. “Hope you don’t mind getting wet.”

 

Hyukjae smirked a little at him. “I have my ways of getting revenge. Ready again?” he asked, holding out his hand. “We both need the practice.”

 

Donghae grabbed the offered hand with a grin.

 

They returned to the boat just before noon to eat lunch and relax, Donghae only suffering a slight headache from where Heenim had been prodding him. Thanks to Heenim tossing the food bags overboard to keep cool in the ocean, their bottled water was refreshingly cold as the temperature outside had warmed considerably from what it had been in the morning.

 

They were just putting all of their trash back into the bags when a series of loud noises brought them all to a standstill.

 

“What was that?” Hyukjae asked, his hand over his heart.

 

“Emergency broadcast,” Heenim replied, frowning. They lifted themselves easily onto the boat to turn the radio system on.

 

“All craft advisory. Ministry of Powered Peoples has ordered the closing of all large ports on western shore. All shipping and commercial traffic proceed to Incheon through normal shipping lanes and for verification. Small craft in Western Sea are advised to return to dock for verification. Advise Coast Guard for craft and people in distress, take no action. All craft advisory…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always kudos and comments are appreciated


	4. .four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mostly unbeta'd simply because I need a pick me up after this week.

Donghae chewed on his thumb as they waited for it to be sufficiently dark, worrying about what would happen if they were caught and that his lack of control would be the thing that got them caught. He at least felt more rested since Heenim had ordered he and Hyukjae to take a nap, given that they were up so early and needed to be able to stay awake until night.

 

“Only a fool wouldn’t be afraid, but your worry won’t help you with control,” Heenim lazily commented, their feet propped up on the boat’s steering wheel, fingers laced over their stomach and eyes closed.

 

The boat was rocking gently in the water as the tide went out, pulling the boat with it. Hyukjae looked just as nervous as Donghae felt, maybe even a little more so.

 

Eventually Heenim cracked their eyes open to look upwards. The light pollution from Incheon and Seoul kept all but the brightest stars from appearing in the sky, and the darker it got, the brighter the light on the horizon seemed to be. They sighed and stood up. “Okay Hyukjae, let’s get going.”

 

“Are you sure this is going to work sunbae?” Hyukjae asked as he nervously sat down where Heenim had been.

 

Heenim shrugged. “Reasonably, yes. They’re still looking for a foreign worker on a commercial vessel, not us, and they won’t be expecting anyone to try and go through the demilitarized zone by water. We should have just enough fuel to make it to Ilsan, and if we’re a little short, it won’t hurt to walk to your parents’ apartment if it’s as close as you remember. Donghae, remember how to just feel the water, and stay relaxed to avoid any movement.”

 

Donghae nodded sharply and took a couple of deep breaths as Heenim made themselves comfortable on the bench seat towards the back.

 

Without the sun, the wind started to have a definite chill to it and Donghae had to occasionally blow on his hands to warm them up as Hyukjae steered the boat north. He took the hour and a half it took for them to get to the DMZ to practice just watching the water as they sped through it, but his nerves grew as Hyukjae slowed them as they reached the point where the Han River met the sea.

 

Forcing himself to take a few deep breaths, Donghae felt the water under them, immediately able to identify buildups of silt in large muddy areas that they would have to navigate around. They’d disabled the running lights and left the radio, smashed to pieces, on the island they’d left. Other than those measures, they had to rely on Heenim to notice and distract anyone looking towards them as they tried to move as quickly as they could through the river.

 

Donghae felt as if all of his senses had grown to make up for the limitations of his sight, but every odd noise made him jump a little, half convinced that they were going to get shot at from either side of the border.

 

“Get more towards the center,” he directed Hyukjae. “Lots of mud along the bank.”

 

“I can only go so far before we cross the border,” Hyukjae said, barely heard above the wind, but pulled them more towards the middle of the river.

 

“Oh go away,” Heenim snapped, making Donghae jump. He turned his head just in time to see Heenim wave a hand towards the north, their eyes closed. “And you all be _quiet_ ,” they continued, waving their other hand to the south.

 

Placing a hand over his thundering heart, Donghae leaned heavily against the back of Hyukjae’s chair. As he refocused on the water, he frowned at an odd shape – several of them – all in a row towards the bottom of the river. “What are those?” he muttered, confused.

 

“Probably leftover mines from the war,” Heenim quickly explained. “Don’t run over them, and try to not think so hard, there’s a guard change so there’s a lot of people I have to distract.”

 

“Hyukjae, start moving towards our bank, they’re all over in the middle of the river,” Donghae said right into Hyukjae’s ear, trying to focus only on the water so as to not distract Heenim from distracting others or from accidentally setting off the mines. He could tell that they were almost through when he noticed a split in the river, and as Hyukjae steered them south, Donghae started breathing much easier once they were technically out of the DMZ.

 

“That was scary,” he told Hyukjae as they sped along the water.

 

“For all of us,” Hyukjae yelled back, his voice almost lost in the wind.

 

Donghae almost felt as if he’d never be warm again when the boat began spluttering and dropping in speed. He could see lights not too far away on either side of the shore, but he knew they were probably almost half a kilometer away from that shore. Dipping his hand into the water quickly confirmed what he already knew – there would be no way that they could swim for land, the water was just too cold to avoid hypothermia.

 

“I think we’re out of gas,” Hyukjae said as the boat stalled in the water.

 

Heenim grunted and shook their head, as if waking up from a nap. “Okay Donghae get us to shore, we’ll walk the rest of the way.”

 

Donghae looked around, not really understanding what Heenim was wanting. He wondered how exactly they expected him to get them to shore considering he was not going to dive into freezing cold water to try and swim it. “Um… how?”

 

Heenim stood up and stretched. “Use the water to push the boat towards shore. If you can make splash that goes up over three meters, you can surely use the entire river to get us to shore.”

 

Donghae screwed his eyes shut. This was so different from just feeling water which is what the majority of his control lessons had been covering. Opening his eyes, he felt the water surrounding the boat and had to think about what he really wanted to do with it. He needed the water to push at the back of the boat to move them to the shore, so that was what he concentrated on.

 

His concentration was totally broken when the boat lurched forward, the nose starting to dip towards the surface of the water. He was almost tossed from his seat and he probably would have smashed his face against the windscreen if he hadn’t thrown his hands forward.

 

“Too much,” he muttered to himself as the boat rocked violently in the water. He obviously needed to use a lighter touch to keep them out of the water and just move them along it.

 

Heenim placed their hands on Donghae’s shoulders. “Relax,” they soothed. “Try it again.”

 

Donghae tried to imagine watery hands pushing gently at the back of the boat to move them along. The boat lurched forward, this time without the worrying dip that would flip them over, and he kept doing the same thing over and over again to get them to the shore. It was almost a shock when the boat actually ran aground, halting their forward movement.

 

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “We made it.”

 

Heenim patted him lightly on the shoulders. “Good job, Donghae,” they praised, and Donghae felt his shoulders relax. Hyukjae grabbed the bag and scrambled up onto the prow and jumped off to land in the mud of the bank, followed quickly by Donghae and Heenim.

 

“Donghae, one last thing,” Heenim said. “Sink the boat.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“We can’t have the Ministry finding the boat, our fingerprints are on file,” they said, gesturing between themselves and Hyukjae. “Hurry and sink it, we don’t want to be discovered.”

 

“How?” Donghae asked, bewildered.

 

“You almost sent us completely over, I’m sure you can figure something out. Just make sure that it stays on the bottom of the river,” Heenim replied, waving a hand towards the water.

 

“Here,” Hyukjae said, stretching out his bare hand. “I can help with that.”

 

Donghae held up a finger to indicate that he needed a minute to think. He knew that boats floated unless there were holes in the bottom, so to get it to stay underwater, he’d need to somehow make holes in the boat.

 

“Forget little holes, just break the damn thing in half,” Heenim muttered, folding their arms. “Water can be as hard as concrete when it wants to be. You just need to stop overthinking it and do it. Our powers come completely naturally to us, you can do this easily.”

 

Blowing out his breath, Donghae nodded. Heenim had been right so far about his powers, so all he really needed to do was just to do it. Grabbing Hyukjae’s hand, he felt the distraction try to overcome him, but he stopped thinking about anything but the boat and getting it underwater. In his mental vision, he could see hands pulling the boat backwards off the ground and back fully into the water, but in his physical vision, the boat just seemed to move backwards on its own.

 

Getting it to sink was just a bit harder and he struggled with how to actually achieve it before he remembered that Heenim had told him to just break the boat in half. Taking a deep breath, he tightened his hand around Hyukjae’s a little. He didn’t want to have to try a second time. He imagined the water rising into the air, holding in place until there was enough of it to do what Donghae wanted it to do. To break the boat, he needed the water to be sharp, like an axe, and heavy enough to fully crash through the fiberglass hull. Donghae felt a pulse of energy leave his arms, making him feel like he’d just swung a baseball bat.

 

He jumped when the sound of cracking fiberglass reached them a second after it happened, and he watched the boat, now in two halves, slip beneath the waves with an open mouth.

 

“Wow,” he muttered as Hyukjae slipped his hand away, his powers shrinking back to ‘normal.’

 

“Impressive amount of damage, let’s get going before anyone remembers to come and investigate.”

 

Scrambling up the dirt hill, Donghae looked around, following Hyukjae, who was walking confidently the direction of lights. As they drew closer, Donghae noticed how Hyukjae seemed deeply familiar with the twists and turns, able to keep them off the main roads and away from all but a few people.

 

“Did you grow up here?” he asked in a whisper.

 

 _Quiet,_ Heenim admonished.

 

Hyukjae looked back and nodded, answering Donghae’s question.

 

 _He says that he grew up in a small house near the station, but his family had moved to a new place about a year before he and Lami activated that’s not too much farther away_ , Heenim continued mentally to Donghae. Hyukjae pulled his hood up as they ducked into an alleyway that was near a large apartment building, and Donghae noticed the worried looks at the street traffic.

 

_Let’s go, there’s minimal people right now._

 

Following Hyukjae, Donghae waited nervously with Heenim as Hyukjae pressed the buzzer for his parent’s apartment.

 

“Hello?” a voice answered, and even through the distortion of the system, Donghae could hear the suspicion.

 

Hyukjae wasn’t answering, just staring at the metal box, until Heenim prodded him. “Mom?” he shakily asked. “Mom, it’s Hyukjae, could you let us in please?”

 

There was a nerve wracking pause, and Donghae really hoped that Hyukjae’s parents hadn’t moved without telling him.

 

“Who is this?” she snapped.

 

“Mom, it’s really me,” Hyukjae pleaded. “You let Lami decorate the cake for my last birthday here and I thought she had thrown up on it when you brought it out.”

 

The door beside them buzzed and Donghae reached for it, yanking it open almost before the locks had totally disengaged. Rushing inside, they hung back in the darkened lobby area while waiting for an elevator to come down. Donghae felt like he could breathe for a few minutes, the security of being inside a building instead of out in the open calming his thudding heart.

 

“You thought she’d thrown up on your cake?” Donghae finally asked, his eyes adjusting to the dark.

 

“It was yellowish green and very lumpy from globs of frosting,” Hyukjae explained. “She thought it was very pretty.”

 

An elevator dinged as it arrived, and a woman rushed off, her short hair nearly bouncing from looking around.

 

“Mom!” Hyukjae hissed. “Over here.”

 

Donghae saw her face go slack with shock before her eyes welled with tears. She showed no hesitation in pulling Hyukjae immediately into a hug, patting his back, and Hyukjae curved down, wrapping his arms around her smaller frame.

 

“Oh baby,” she cooed as she patted Hyukjae’s cheeks. “Where’s your sister?”

 

Hyukjae sighed. “She’s still at Home. Can we go upstairs before we’re caught?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the door, where a young couple were staring at the buzzers.

 

For the first time, Hyukjae’s mother seemed to notice both Donghae and Heenim, and she looked at the door as well. “Come on, quickly.”

 

They slid into the elevator just as they heard the door buzz again and Donghae bit his lip as the door closed, the elevator beginning to move upwards. It was only when the apartment door closed behind him that Donghae felt relatively safe. Hyukjae’s father had met them at the door and he likewise had pulled Hyukjae immediately into a hug, ruffling Hyukjae’s hair a bit.

 

“Where’s Lami?” Hyukjae’s father asked.

 

“Still at Home,” Hyukjae repeated as he toed off his shoes. “She’s fine. Dad, Mom, this is Heenim sunbae and Lee Donghae.”

 

Hyukjae’s mother looked startled for a second. “You’re Heenim?” she asked.

 

Heenim nodded. “I am.” They looked shocked as Hyukjae’s mother hugged him.

 

“Thank you for getting through to Lami.”

 

Heenim gently hugged her back. “It was really Hyukjae who did the bulk of the work, I just helped her re-associate a few things mentally,” they said, and Donghae guessed they were downplaying their involvement.

 

 _No I’m not._ Heenim replied in his mind. _It took two mental re-associations for a light bulb to go off for her._

 

Hyukjae’s father patted Donghae’s shoulder lightly, as if welcoming him. “Let’s sit down, I’m sure there’s an interesting tale about how you’re here.”

 

Hyukjae blew his cheeks out for a second before nodding. He hung back for a second, letting his parents and Heenim step into the apartment from the doorway. Donghae caught Hyukjae’s worried look, and although he felt annoyance that Hyukjae thought he would just blurt Hyukjae’s sexuality out, he could understand the fear.

 

“I’m not telling them,” he whispered, and just for fun, held out his pinky.

 

Hyukjae visibly relaxed and wrapped his pinky around Donghae’s.

 

“I know why you’re scared, but it’s kind of annoying that you have such little faith in me,” Donghae said as he separated their skin. He suddenly noticed that even though he had felt his powers expanding, he was so distracted by his annoyance that he didn’t even notice the water around him.

 

“Sorry,” Hyukjae whispered back, shame crossing his face. “I just…”

 

“I know,” Donghae replied, knowing that Heenim telling Sungmin and Halmeoni caused Hyukjae to worry that his sexuality would come up to his family before he was ready for that conversation. “Come on, let’s go before they come looking for us.”

 

Heenim was slouching in a chair when he and Hyukjae came into the living room, and their glance was knowing, but quickly faded to a polite expression. Donghae sat easily on the floor next to Heenim while Hyukjae sat in between his parents on the sofa.

 

“So how did you all get here from Home?” Hyukjae’s mother asked.

 

Hyukjae looked beseechingly at Heenim, who leaned forward, resting their elbows on their knees. “Donghae is a new addition to Home, he activated about three weeks ago. Halmeoni had me escorting them on a field trip of sorts. We needed to understand just how powerful Donghae can get, including being amplified by Hyukjae.”

 

Donghae flushed at the sudden attention from Hyukjae’s parents.

 

“Why is that?” Hyukjae’s father finally asked.

 

“Donghae is the first elemental that’s activated in Korea in over four decades.”

 

“Forty years?” Donghae repeated, his mouth dropping open. He’d been told it was rare, but he didn’t realize how rare.

 

“Yes,” Heenim replied. “It’s far more common in larger populations than here. Hence our trip outside of Home. Donghae needed a sufficiently remote area to practice in, both with and without Hyukjae amplifying him. Someone on one of the large ships noticed some of Donghae’s clouds and reported it when they got to Incheon.”

 

To Donghae’s surprise, Hyukjae’s mother scowled. “Those idiots,” she muttered darkly. “They think it’s a foreign worker on a ship, or at least that was the last I heard from the news. The Ministry closing the west coast has been one of the leading stories, along with the unhappiness from business interests,” she explained with an almost vindictive look.

 

Heenim’s lips twitched. “It is a pity that we haven’t met before, Kang Deokbon. I think we could have a very interesting discussion about the Ministry.”

 

“Hopefully with expletives and cursing the Vice Minister,” she wittily replied.

 

“I have several names for him, none of which should ever be repeated in polite society. The Ministry closed the coast, but they still have no jurisdiction over the demilitarized zone. We were able to sneak onto the river from there, letting us avoid the Ministry.”

 

“Clever,” Hyukjae’s father commented. “How are you getting back to Seoul?”

 

Heenim shrugged. “I was planning on waiting for an hour or so to let the trains clear of the majority of people before we go back.”

 

Deokbon sniffed. “Kanghun can drive you back, don’t bother with public transportation unless you have to. I’m going to call in for food while we wait. Neither of us have eaten and I doubt you three have either. Where did you leave your boat?”

 

“At the bottom of the river,” Heenim easily replied.

 

“Excellent work! How did you manage that?” Kanghun asked, eagerly leaning forward.

 

Donghae looked up at Heenim, who nodded slightly. _Hyukjae’s parents are entirely trustworthy, they harbor absolutely no affection for the Ministry since their two youngest children were arrested and taken from them_ , they assured him mentally.

 

“I just imagined I was making a sand castle to get water into the boat first,” Donghae explained, moving his hands in a general approximation. “Then I cracked the boat in half by thinking of a giant axe coming down on it.” He shyly played with the hem of his shirt when he saw the wide eyed looks from Hyukjae’s parents. “I was holding onto Hyukjae though; I wouldn’t be able to do that normally… I think…”

 

“We’ll figure that out in your control lessons,” Heenim said, ruffling his hair.

 

“Mom, if you’re ordering food, can we order enough for Lami too? She’s already going to be so mad at me and Donghae, I don’t want to show up without something for her,” Hyukjae pleaded.

 

Deokbon glanced at Donghae for a second. “Both of you?” she asked.

 

Hyukjae’s face began paling as he apparently realized what he’d just said.

 

“I placed Donghae with them on both Sojin and Sungmin’s suggestions on how to help him settle in and deal with the trauma incurred from the Ministry,” Heenim smoothly replied. “Luckily, these two have become fast friends since they’re the same age, and Donghae not being used to Lami’s modes of thought are encouraging more detailed speech bubbles from her.”

 

Donghae saw Hyukjae’s relieved expression for the second it was on his face, but he wondered about the lie. He’d gotten the impression that everyone around Heenim was entirely truthful due to their power, and Heenim returned the courtesy of not lying.

 

 _It’s not a lie, both of them would have recommended that you stay with Hyukjae for multiple reasons – Lami just pre-empted their advice._ Heenim quickly shot to him mentally.

 

“Is there any occurrence of the Ministry _not_ traumatizing someone?” Deokbon asked rhetorically as she got up from the sofa to go into the kitchen.

 

She returned within a minute, already talking on the phone and with a few take out menus in hand. “Sora, that was not a request,” she said firmly into the phone, placing the menus down near Hyukjae. “Come over for dinner. A fundraising meeting can wait. We’ll be expecting you.”

 

“What is noona fundraising for?” Hyukjae asked as soon as Deokbon had disconnected the call.

 

Deokbon looked puzzled for a moment before sighing. “This is why I wish we could talk more than once a year. Sora decided to enter into politics and she was elected to the National Assembly last month.”

 

Hyukjae’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. “Really?” he nearly squeaked.

 

Deokbon nodded. “She announced her candidacy just after Chuseok, but I don’t know if any of the letters are getting through.”

 

Heenim sighed. “They’re not, we haven’t had a mail shipment for almost a full year now, and Halmeoni can’t harass them every day like she wants to due to other issues that the Ministry is causing that require immediate attention.”

 

“That’s exactly why Sora went into politics,” Kanghun commented. “I think her ultimate goal is to be the Vice Minister of Powered Peoples.”

 

Heenim raised their eyebrows briefly. “I wish her luck in that endeavor. She would undoubtedly be far more pleasant to work with than Kim Namgi.”

 

“Wow,” Hyukjae said. “I can’t believe noona went into politics!”

 

Kanghun shrugged. “That was one of the things we were going to tell you both at Chuseok. I wish you had cell phone reception there,” he commented to Heenim.

 

“We’re in the middle of Seoul, of course we have reception. We just can’t get out to go get a phone, because most of us don’t even have an identification card let alone a bank account or money,” Heenim replied.

 

Donghae wanted to back up at the expression on Deokbon’s face, instinctively recognizing it as ‘angry mother.’

 

“The Ministry told us that you didn’t, something about your few electronics users interfering with it. Do you have internet too?”

 

“Of course. I can name at least three technos who would have killed someone by this point if they didn’t have internet access. We just don’t have a lot of computers,” Heenim explained with a shrug of their shoulders. “No amount of arguing with the Ministry has done any good, not even pointing out how much of the country is wired. Anything we can get electronics wise from the Ministry has usually been for repairs, with very little left over, and that tiny amount is what our technos have been using for upgrading. The computers that we do have were brought in as presents and aren’t communal.”

 

Deokbon blew out a slow breath, closing her eyes. Donghae jumped a little when Heenim laughed quickly. “I don’t think that’s anatomically possible.”

 

Donghae shared a confused look with Hyukjae. “Uh, sunbae, I think that was just thought, not spoken,” Hyukjae said. “We didn’t hear anything.”

 

Heenim shrugged. “Sorry,” they directed to Deokbon, who was looking surprised. “That thought was so loud, I thought you had said it.”

 

“You don’t need to touch for your telepathy to work? I thought most telepathic powers worked with contact.”

 

Heenim shrugged. “Some do, but I don’t need to touch anyone for my powers to work. I hear far more than I wish I did.”

 

Deokbon’s surprised faded to sympathy. “That must be very burdensome for you. Let’s decide what we want,” she offered, gesturing to the menus.

 

Donghae got up to sit next to Hyukjae as Deokbon went to heat water for tea. He glanced over the menus, chewing on his lower lip as he tried to find the least expensive item that sounded good.

 

“Do you like jjajangmyeon?” Hyukjae asked.

 

Donghae nodded, but balked at the price for an order.

 

“Okay, we’ll get that for us and Lami. Sunbae, what do you want?”

 

“Makguksu if they have it, anything spicy if not,” Heenim immediately answered. “Halmeoni will reimburse you,” they said to Kanghun, who waved a hand.

 

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve had five years of missed meals with two of our children, we have more than enough to cover this.”

 

Deokbon came back to the living room, carrying a new looking laptop and the charger. “Kanghun, where’s your phone?” she asked, putting the laptop down on Hyukjae’s lap.

 

“I’ll get it,” he offered.

 

Hyukjae looked as confused as Donghae felt.

 

“I refuse to be cut off any more than I already am from you two,” Deokbon said forcefully. “Since we now know that you can get online and get phone calls, I expect you to call at least once a week on video chat, if not more, so I can hear from you and Lami.”

 

“But–“ Hyukjae started.

 

“No protests. I can get a new laptop, but I can’t get in to see you more than once a year,” she said, her voice starting to shake from emotion. “And the thrice-damned Ministry won’t let you and Lami come home.”

 

Hyukjae gave the laptop to Donghae, then stood to give his mother a hug. Donghae felt a surge of homesickness and loneliness nearly swallow him. He wanted to see his family so badly, and it was a feeling that was only compounded when Kanghun returned with a mobile phone and simply joined the hug.

 

 _Chuseok isn’t too far away. If you can wrestle the phone away from Hyukjae, you could call your family, too,_ Heenim told him mentally.

 

Donghae started, tightening his grip on the laptop, when there was a sharp knock on the door.

 

“Are you expecting someone who’s extremely annoyed?” Heenim asked after a few seconds.

 

“That would be Sora,” Deokbon said. “I’ll get the door.”

 

Hyukjae stayed standing, and even Donghae had to admit some amusement at the small argument between mother and daughter.

 

“Mom, I hope this is more important… Oh my God.” Donghae guessed that the young woman in a smartly tailored business suit would be Hyukjae’s older sister Sora. “Hyukjae!” she exclaimed, almost knocking Hyukjae off his feet with the force of her hug.

 

“Shh,” Hyukjae replied. “Not so loud, noona,” he chastised even as he hugged her back.

 

“Where’s Lami?” Sora immediately asked.

 

“Still at Home, she’s fine,” Hyukjae said for the third time that night. “Noona, this is Heenim sunbae and Lee Donghae, my new roommate,” he quickly introduced.

 

Heenim stood, extending their hand towards Sora. “Congratulations on your election, Lee Sora,” they said.

 

Sora beamed. “Thank you,” she replied as she shook their hand. “Also thank you so much for what you did for Lami…”

 

Heenim shook their head. “As I told your parents, it was mostly Hyukjae’s work, I only helped her re-associate two thoughts and she’s done the rest from there.”

 

“Oh!” Hyukjae exclaimed, as if he just remembered something. “Lami’s making noises now,” he told his family with a smile.

 

“She is?” Deokbon asked, her eyes wide.

 

Hyukjae nodded. “She just started around Christmas, and its more special effects kind of noises rather than words. But since Donghae moved in, she’s been using them a lot more.”

 

“I still have to try and puzzle out half of her bubbles,” Donghae said ruefully, shrugging.

 

“You’ve been living with us for just over two weeks, I’d be very surprised if you could even figure out the most basic ones,” Hyukjae pointed out.

 

“I think I’m getting the hang of it. I at least know her references to you, sunbae, and herself, and the clownfish is me.”

 

“She calls you a clownfish?” Sora laughed.

 

“He looked like one when Lami first met him,” Heenim teased.

 

“I was really sleepy from activating, though,” he defended as he stood up, intending to put the laptop in the bag Heenim had set down.

 

“Here, put this in your bag, too,” Kanghun said, holding out the phone. “It’s on a plan, so don’t worry about running out of service.”

 

Hyukjae grabbed the phone first. “Actually, let me do that, I remember what you told me about the electronic testers,” he told Donghae.

 

Donghae grimaced, but handed over the electronics. He didn’t want to accidentally break anything, even though he was trying to not pay attention to the water. The chaos around him was a good distraction, even if it did make him lonely for his family. He sat back down on the floor next to Heenim, watching Hyukjae and feeling homesick.

 

He finally had to ask where the toilet was when he felt like he couldn’t hold his bladder anymore while waiting on the food to arrive. The quietness in other areas of the apartment was something of a relief for Donghae, and he hung around the kitchen for a few minutes, trying to stop missing his family so much that he felt like he would cry if he had to keep watching Hyukjae soak up the obvious affection of his family.

 

“Feeling homesick?”

 

Donghae started, suddenly noticing Deokbon had come into the room. “Yeah,” he answered quietly, glancing at the floor.

 

Deokbon walked over to him and patted his shoulder comfortingly. “I’m sure they miss you a lot, too. Are they in Seoul?”

 

Donghae shook his head. “I live – I used to live in Mokpo. My mom and hyung are still there.”

 

She sighed. “So far away, and the Ministry isn’t delivering mail,” she murmured, shaking her head. “Your father?” she asked curiously.

 

Donghae shook his head, grief unexpectedly slamming back into him. “He died a couple of years ago.”

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, rubbing his back. “Make sure Hyukjae lets you use the phone too, okay? I know what it’s like to be cut off from children and I can’t imagine making your mother suffer like that.”

 

“Thank you,” Donghae mumbled. Guilt dogged him as he followed her back out to the living room, and he saw Heenim pause in their conversation with Sora.

 

 _There is absolutely nothing for you to feel guilty for, especially not about your sexuality. You don’t owe anyone your happiness in return for them being nice to you once. You’re not stealing some mythical grandchildren from her and I really wish I could erase that thought imprint from the world entirely. It causes far more guilt and havoc than it should._ Heenim’s mental voice was sharp and harsh, but it did break his thoughts out of the pattern of guilt.

 

Donghae sighed silently as he sat back down. _Sorry_ , he offered mentally.

 

Heenim patted his hair as they replied to Sora’s question. “We’ve been fortunate that the Ministry hasn’t done more than they have, but Halmeoni does have the ears of a few powerful politicians, and they ensure that we maintain a relatively comfortable life. We may not have extras, but we have what we need to maintain Home.”

 

The loud buzz quieted everyone, and Kanghun got up to answer. “Hello?”

 

“Delivery for this address.”

 

“I’ll be right down.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, kudos and comments are appreciated.


	5. .five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: fairly detailed description of a panic attack  
> the story is now caught up to where I'm currently writing, so updates will be slower.

Donghae’s hand shook as he raised it to knock on a door. He’d gotten lost at least three times on the way to Halmeoni’s office in building one, and as it was, he was already ten minutes late for registration.

 

Even though Heenim and Hyukjae had assured him that there was no way he was going to be taken from Home or hurt, the anxiety of facing the Ministry was getting the better of him.

 

As the door swung open by itself, Donghae immediately saw an elderly woman shuffling towards him, slightly hunched over, and dressed in a lightweight blue and white hanbok that clung lightly to her small frame. Wrinkles lined her face and a few dark age spots crossed the bridge of her nose, but her eyes were sharp and bright and her white hair was neatly tied back. Donghae imagined that in her youth, she probably would have been considered very beautiful.

 

“Lee Donghae?” she asked, her voice soft.

 

“Yes Halmeoni,” Donghae replied formally, bowing from the waist. “Sorry I’m late, I got lost.”

 

She smiled and returned the bow. “It’s understandable, Home can be a labyrinth for someone who hasn’t been here for long. Please excuse the slow pace. My mind may work as well as yours, but my body is slowing down,” she admitted ruefully as she finally reached the door, grabbing a plain folder that was next to the door.

 

Donghae backed up slightly as she shuffled out, and the door closed gently behind her.

 

“As much as I want to reassure you of the many things that you are most likely worried about, the people from the Ministry tend to get more paranoid the longer they have to wait,” she said as she slowly walked towards the elevator. She patted his arm gently. “Don’t fret, the Ministry is far more bark than bite. They may posture like a rooster but they have very little power within Home and they know it.”

 

Donghae worried on his lower lip for a moment. “They’re not going to like my power, are they?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

 

“They haven’t liked anyone’s power since the current Vice Minister was installed almost fifteen years ago,” Halmeoni replied with a shrug. “We scare him because we cannot be controlled the way he wishes.” She offered him a smile as the elevator arrived. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

 

Donghae blew his breath out and nodded. “Thank you,” he mumbled.

 

They were both quiet as the elevator transported them down to the lobby he’d first walked into almost a month before. When the elevator opened, he gulped, his nerves immediately coming back.

 

Heenim was lounging behind the large reception desk in the lobby, their feet propped up on the desk and arms folded across their chest, and their head turned as Halmeoni stepped out of the elevator. There were at least four more armed guards accompanying Lee Seunggi and a thin, nervous looking middle aged man who kept pushing his glasses up his nose while keeping a tight grip on a tube and an inkpad.

 

“Go on. Only two of your pack dogs like normal, and the rest stay out here with me,” Heenim told Lee Seunggi rudely, pointing at an open door.

 

_Your worry is loud enough to hear a block away. Halmeoni won’t let anything happen to you, and I’ll be right outside_ , Heenim reassured him mentally.

 

Donghae followed Halmeoni into the room, and courteously pulled her chair out. It at least helped him not concentrate on how much it felt like his insides were shaking as the door closed behind two armed guards. Sitting next to Halmeoni, Donghae tried to make himself as small as possible, folding his hands in his lap and hunching his shoulders while staring at the table.

 

Halmeoni placed the folder on the table, and Donghae watched it move across the table on its own with wide eyes. The guards shifted, obviously uncomfortable at the display, and Donghae saw blatant distaste cross Lee Seunggi’s face. Reaching into his suit jacket, he pulled out a pen and used it to flip the cover open.

 

“Everything is filled out, and I believe all you need is the DNA sample and fingerprints,” Halmeoni said, breaking the silence, and in a tone of voice that she was stating a fact rather than asking a question.

 

“What is this supposed to mean? Water? Are you becoming senile already Choi Youngja? What’s this one do?”

 

Donghae’s head jerked up at the rude words. “Yah!” he exclaimed, his face twisting in revulsion. He really hoped that Lee Seunggi was not that rude with his mother when she came to visit him.

 

Halmeoni reached under the table to place her hand on Donghae’s. _Don’t bother, I’ve been called worse than senile. This is simply posturing._ Her mental ‘voice’ was much softer than Heenim’s, which felt like it could almost echo inside his head from how loud it seemed; Halmeoni’s was more like a whisper. “Lee Donghae’s power is the element of water,” she replied verbally. “The sample and fingerprints?”

 

Lee Seunggi stood. “This is very irregular. Make sure they stay here,” he snarled at the guards, leaving the room, and leaving Donghae and Halmeoni with three very nervous looking people, two of whom were visibly armed.

 

Halmeoni sighed and shifted in her chair, but kept her hand on Donghae’s. _Relax, this might be a while_ , she told him mentally. _Lee Seunggi is cut from the same cloth as the Vice Minister, and he is just posturing to make himself feel better._

 

Donghae grimaced. He wanted to be anywhere but where he was, and the silence was making his nerves come back. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he focused on his sense of the water, mentally watching the little streams of water pass through pipes, and further out, he knew that the river was right in front of the building. He could almost pretend he was sitting on the bank of the river and not in an enclosed room with two people who had guns and were afraid of him.

 

He guessed that they were kept waiting for almost fifteen minutes before anything happened again. Halmeoni sighed irritably before the door even opened, her lips pressing together and her hands folding in her lap. The door opened sedately, letting Lee Seunggi and an older man into the room. The nervous looking guy shot to his feet and the guards straightened, making Donghae wonder who the guy was, especially with the smug look on Lee Seunggi’s face.

 

“You don’t normally bother with the trivial matter of registration, Kim Namgi,” Halmeoni said, her voice neutral. Unlike the people from the Ministry, Halmeoni didn’t bother standing up to greet him.

 

The name was familiar to Donghae, remembering Heenim referring to the Vice Minister by that name while they were with Hyukjae’s parents. His stomach churned uncomfortably and he felt his heart beating a little faster. Curling one of his hands into a fist, he felt the pricks of his nails digging into his skin, giving him at least one thing to focus on. The minister looked about as discomfited as what Lee Seunggi did, even as he straightened the cuffs of his suit before he sat, and waved his hand, making the middle aged guy sit down and the guards relax. Donghae already didn’t like the man, but the way he acted as if he would catch a lethal disease from just being in the room deepened the dislike.

 

“Anything irregular is handled by me. What is this one?”

 

Halmeoni waved a silent hand at the file, which scooted closer to him. Donghae felt a slight sense of satisfaction at how the minister reared back, like the file was about to attack him. With no further movement of the file, the minister leaned over, glaring at Halmeoni and then looking over the paperwork.

 

“Everything has been filled out correctly and to the best of our knowledge, like always. If you will simply take the fingerprints and the spit sample, we can all return to other things,” Halmeoni said.

 

“Water.” The minister looked up, his eyebrows furrowing.

 

“That is what it says,” Halmeoni replied, her voice a patient tone that many adults would use when trying to explain a difficult concept to a child. “It’s not unheard of for a Korean to have an elemental power.”

 

The minister stared at Donghae for an uncomfortable length of time, and not exactly reassuring. Donghae tried to move backwards a bit, wanting to just get away. Folding his arms across his chest, Donghae glanced nervously around, noticing how the guards were shifting slightly.

 

“What exactly do you mean with just putting water?” the minister snarled, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms. “That makes no sense by itself.”

 

“Lee Donghae activated within the element of water,” Halmeoni replied after a moment. “Since an elemental has not activated for decades now, we put his power into a rather broad category rather than trying to list details.”

 

Again the minister stared at Donghae before standing up, waving his hand at the guards. “Bring it with us. If you cannot give us a limit, then we will discover it for ourselves.”

 

Panic completely overwhelmed Donghae. “ _No_ ,” he screamed, trying to back his chair up, but it only moved so far before it stopped on a dip and Donghae tipped backwards. Rolling out of the chair, he backed up into a corner, as far away as he could get from the guards. He could tell that Halmeoni was talking, but the replaying of his nightmares in reality again was enough to give him a pure fight or flight response. Fear clawed at him, making him feel like he couldn’t breathe.

 

_Water_. The water wasn’t a distraction to him at the moment. He knew where every drop of water around him was, and he wanted it for protection.

 

“Make it stop!” the minister shouted, but Donghae barely heard him over a high whining sound, and he was totally focused on the sight of one guard looking panicked and starting to reach for his gun.

 

Donghae didn’t even think about what he was doing. He needed to protect himself, and he did so in the only way he felt he could. Water burst through the walls, flinging debris everywhere, and the water spraying into the room circled around, forming a protective sphere around Donghae’s cowering and shaking form.

 

He felt, just for a second, a warm purr that vibrated the water shield before a hand landed on his hair. He cried out in alarm, reflexively trying to back away. _Relax, it’s me. You’re safe._ Heenim’s familiar mental voice was a relief and he really just wanted to be comforted. _You can let the water go now. Halmeoni threw the guards out and has everyone else frozen in place. She is not happy with that asshole for scaring you like that, and she’s still cursing at him._

 

As Donghae’s breathing slowed with the repeated mental assurances that he was safe, his concentration broke. His water shield made an audible popping sound as it half drained and half exploded outward, soaking anyone and everything that didn’t already have water on it. Heenim slid down the wall, sitting next to Donghae and wrapping a comforting arm around him. Snuggling into their side, Donghae finally noticed the open door, the upended table, his chair lying on the ground, the guards trying to crowd in, Halmeoni standing with her fists clenched, and the three frozen forms that were still in the room. Numbness crept through Donghae, leaving him exhausted, slightly dizzy, and feeling completely hollowed out.

 

_Take a few deep breaths, that sensation is natural after a panic attack._ Heenim soothed while running their fingers through his wet hair.

 

Following Heenim’s advice, Donghae pulled air slowly into his lungs and tucked his shaking hands between his knees. Heenim kept petting Donghae’s hair until he was breathing normally again. From where his head landed on Heenim’s shoulder, Donghae peeked out at the room.

 

To say the room was destroyed was being slightly generous. Large holes going from almost the floor to the ceiling were in the three walls where Donghae had busted the pipes open, leaving wet chunks of drywall and concrete scattered on the floor and water steadily pouring out from the pipes. The only wall that wasn’t destroyed was the entrance to the lobby, but Donghae could see and sense the water that was splashing onto the drywall. Everyone in the room aside from Donghae was completely soaked in water, making clothes cling tightly to the bodies it covered, but the water was starting to seep into Donghae’s clothes as well from the puddles on the floor and the spray that was coming from over his shoulder

 

“You will _never_ take anyone from Home as long as I am here,” Halmeoni spat, her voice gravelly, as if she’d been yelling. “You’ve already traumatized him more than enough, and you will wait outside.” The minister, Lee Seunggi, and the nervous guy were all picked up telekinetically and pushed outside of the door, knocking the rest of the guards off their feet.

 

Donghae saw the folder, the tube, and the inkpad float over to Heenim, who gathered all of the items and then flipped the folder open.

 

_Okay Donghae, let’s get these two things done and get those useless dogs out of here._

 

Donghae pressed his ink-stained fingers to the slightly damp paper as Heenim directed him gently, and then spit some saliva into the tube. Even that much felt like such a monumental effort to Donghae and he watched, completely exhausted, as the folder, inkpad, and tube all nearly flew out the door, pushing against the minister’s chest.

 

“There is your damn information, now _get out_ before I throw you into the river,” Halmeoni barked.

 

Everyone outside of the door scrambled to their feet and nearly tripped over each other in their haste to get away. Donghae looked up at Halmeoni as she sighed, her shoulders dropping, showing some exhaustion, and his lower lip trembled. “I’m sorry Halmeoni,” he sniffled, feeling tears dropping out of his eyes.

 

She smiled, pushing her weathered hand against Donghae’s cheek. _Don’t be sorry, you were terrified and you reacted in the only way you knew. That was their own fault for scaring you so much_.

 

Donghae looked around. “But… but the room…”

 

“It can be repaired,” Halmeoni replied, her voice gentle, and the water suddenly stopped spraying out. “Are you okay?”

 

Donghae shrugged, still feeling horrible about the damage he caused. “I just feel numb,” he replied, leaning his head on Heenim’s shoulder.

 

“Sojin’s already coming,” Heenim told Halmeoni. “I called her as soon as I heard Donghae panic.”

 

Sojin appeared within a few minutes, and Donghae saw her face go slack with shock for a second before she rushed in, kneeling in front of Donghae, gathering his hands in hers.

 

“Are you okay Donghae?” she asked.

 

“Numb,” he repeated.

 

“Donghae just had a full blown panic attack when he was threatened with being taken from Home by the Ministry,” Heenim explained, to which Sojin rolled her eyes expressively. “You’re stuck with us,” Heenim lightly joked, squeezing Donghae’s shoulders. “They aren’t going to take you anywhere,” they reassured.

 

Some combination of Heenim, Sojin, and Halmeoni helped him calm down to the point where he felt like he could function once again. “I should get to school,” he mumbled, completely embarrassed.

 

“You might want to wash your face first,” Halmeoni told him kindly.

 

Sojin stood up, the lower part of her pants darkened with the water that had soaked into it, and gently tugged Donghae’s hands. “I’ll make sure he gets to class,” she said as Donghae slowly got to his feet.

 

Heenim stood as well, holding out an arm for Halmeoni to lean on. “Okay. I’ll get someone down here to get this cleaned up, and I’m going to check with the technos and make sure we’ve got every entrance that we know of covered and wired. The hell if that douchebag is going to make me into a liar after I already told Donghae that he’s safe here.”

 

Donghae cracked a smile at how Heenim’s main complaint was being called a liar, considering the mess around them. Sojin lightly tugged him towards the door, but before he left, he turned and bowed a full ninety degrees. “Thank you,” he said as he rose up, shuffling towards Sojin.

 

“That must have been extremely scary for you,” Sojin commented in the elevator.

 

“Yeah,” Donghae muttered. “I just… It was just like when they broke into my house.”

 

Sojin hummed, reaching out to hold onto one of Donghae’s hands. Immediately, he felt the numbness fade away a bit.

 

“You don’t hurt yourself when you do that, do you?” Donghae asked.

 

“No, it doesn’t hurt me at all. I can feel what you do, but you remember how I had you looking at your nightmare like it was a movie? That’s what it’s like. It’s removed from me, just like I’m watching a movie.”

 

“Oh,” Donghae said. “Do you think the nightmares are going to come back?”

 

Sojin shrugged. “They could, but the block we put in should prevent them. Be sure to come find me if you do have another one, okay?”

 

“I will,” Donghae promised. He was so tired, almost as tired as he was when he activated, and it did occur to him to just skip school entirely and sleep, but he didn’t want to risk a nightmare without Hyukjae there.

 

Sojin walked with him to the apartment he shared with Hyukjae, and she looked puzzled as he pulled the door open. “You’re staying with Hyukjae and Lami?” she asked, then shook her head. “Oh right, you and Hyukjae are the same age. Do you get along well?”

 

Donghae nodded, then realized why Sojin would be confused. “Um…” he looked nervously up and down the hall to make sure no one was there aside from he and Sojin.

 

Sojin gestured to the door. “Let’s go inside.” Once the door was shut behind them, she tilted her head. “Anything you tell me in confidence stays that way, I don’t even tell Halmeoni unless it can harm someone.”

 

Donghae relaxed, blowing his breath out. “Well, Halmeoni already knows because Heenim told her and Sungmin. Lami had a vision about a future relationship…”

 

“You and her?” Sojin asked curiously.

 

Donghae shook his head, not wanting to go back on his promise to Hyukjae that he wouldn’t tell anyone Hyukjae’s sexuality. “I’m not attracted to girls,” he said softly, blushing.

 

“Oh,” she said after a second. “Now that lingering fear makes sense to me.” She smiled and rubbed his arms. “Don’t worry,” she soothed. “I’m sure Heenim has already told you about the freedom to be yourself inside Home. Very few people will discriminate because of who you’re attracted to. We’ve all learned how to let everyone be themselves.”

 

Donghae nodded. “Yeah, they have. It’s still just kind of scary because I’m so used to hiding it.”

 

“That’s completely normal, given your experiences. Go get changed, the sooner you’re back to a normal schedule, the sooner you’ll feel more safe and secure.”

 

After Donghae had reemerged in dry clothes with his backpack, Sojin walked with him to the classrooms. He felt slightly more normal by the time he was there, but he was still mentally exhausted. He opened the door to the high school class, surprised when Teacher Park was sitting behind her desk, reading a book, and everyone else was sitting comfortably either in their chairs or on their desks.

 

“Donghae!” Sunkyu said brightly.

 

“Hey,” Donghae greeted, a little listlessly as he dragged himself to his normal seat next to Hyukjae and collapsed into it with a sigh.

 

“How was registration?” Hyuna asked, her head tilted curiously, and Donghae noticed that he had the attention of every other student.

 

“That _sucked_ ,” Donghae whined, abandoning any pretense and leaning heavily against Hyukjae, who wrapped an arm around him.

 

“What happened?” Hyukjae asked.

 

Donghae sighed. “The Vice Minister happened,” he grumbled. “He showed up and was _really_ rude to Halmeoni and he acted like he was going to catch some lethal disease just from being in the room! _Then_ when Halmeoni told him that we don’t know what my limits are as an elemental, he said that he was going to take me and find out himself!”

 

“He said _what_?!” Hyuna exclaimed, suddenly standing. “He can’t do that!”

 

“Yeah, Halmeoni threw him out of the room and told him to get out after he had my information,” Donghae said, skipping over his panic attack and the destruction he left behind. Even Jitae was looking sympathetic as everyone crowded around Donghae. “That sucked so much,” he complained.

 

“He was just going to take you?” Sunkyu asked, looking horrified.

 

Donghae nodded.

 

“Well I don’t think we’re going to be having class today,” Teacher Park said, looking surprised. “Not after that sort of shocking news.”

 

“Let’s go swimming!” Hyuna said, brightening up immediately, but pouting when several people groaned. “What?” she asked.

 

“That’s your solution for everything Hyuna,” Hyukjae teased. “Good day? Go swimming. Bad day? Go swimming. Almost get kidnapped?”

 

“Go swimming,” everyone chorused.

 

Donghae laughed. “That actually sounds really good.”

 

“Okay class, we’re going to have a physical training day instead of class. Please go back to your rooms and get your swim or exercise clothes, and we will meet downstairs in twenty minutes.”

 

Hyuna jumped up with a cheer and was the first out of the door. Everyone else dispersed quickly, and Donghae followed Hyukjae. “Physical training day?” he asked.

 

Hyukjae nodded. “We have them at least once a month while we’re in school. It’s to keep us active and moving instead of just sitting somewhere and getting depressed about the state of our lives. It’s encouraged that once we’re out of school, we do at least thirty minutes of activity every day.”

 

“Does it help?”

 

“Surprisingly, yes.” Hyukjae opened the door of their apartment, setting his backpack down. “What are you going to do?”

 

“I really want to go swimming,” Donghae replied immediately. He shoved his fingers through his hair. “This is going to sound totally weird, but it’s almost like the water is calling to me and I _need_ that.”

 

“No, I totally understand that feeling. There are some days that I have to go to the studio and dance just because I need to.”

 

“You dance?” Donghae glanced over Hyukjae’s lean body, wondering what he looked like dancing.

 

“Yeah. It’s uh… it’s kind of why I activated. I was going to audition for one of the big companies and follow my best friend, but then I activated.” The tips of Hyukjae’s ears were red, even as he shrugged. “What about you?”

 

Donghae smiled. “I like to dance too. I played football for a while and then…” He trailed off, suddenly sad.

 

“Then?” Hyukjae asked softly.

 

Donghae blew out his breath. “And then my dad was diagnosed with cancer. I had to stop because I kept missing practice so I could be at the hospital with him through the chemotherapy sessions.” He was surprised when Hyukjae pulled him into a hug, but he quickly relaxed into it.

 

“Did it go into remission?” Hyukjae’s breath ruffled his hair.

 

Donghae silently shook his head. “He died a couple of years ago. It was already advanced when it was diagnosed.”

 

Hyukjae made a sad noise and tightened his arms. “Sorry.”

 

Donghae smiled a little. “No it’s okay. I miss him a lot, and I know that’s never going to go away, but it’s gotten easier to deal with over time. It also helped that the hospice helped all of us through grief counseling. Are you going to swim too?”

 

Hyukjae reared back a little, a disbelieving look on his face. “Uh…” he gestured with his gloved hands to his covered skin.

 

“Okay, so? You saw that I didn’t have any bad effects from touching you and I think everyone’s aware that you’re not comfortable with skin contact.”

 

Hyukjae’s cheeks darkened. “I can’t swim,” he admitted quietly.

 

“Want to learn?” Donghae offered. “It’s really easy, I promise.”

 

Hyukjae’s lips quirked. “You’re going to keep bugging me until I agree aren’t you?”

 

Donghae playfully rolled his eyes. “Come on, I’m a water elemental, and you’re stuck with me,” he teased as they went into their bedroom. “I don’t want you to drown if I’m not paying attention.”

 

Hyukjae bit his lip before sighing. “Next time, okay?”

 

Donghae held out his pinky. “Promise?”

 

Hyukjae hooked their fingers together. “Promise,” he assured. “If you’re going to swim, you probably want to wear the blue drawstring pants that you have instead of your jeans.”

 

Donghae wrinkled his nose. He’d gotten those while in the prison and he tried to avoid wearing them as much as possible. Since he didn’t have any actual swim trunks with him, they would work okay if he rolled up the legs. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Do you want to change here or in the bathroom?”

 

“Bathroom,” Hyukjae answered. “I need to use the toilet anyway.”

 

As soon as Hyukjae had shut the door behind him, Donghae stripped down to his underwear, tossing his clothes on his bed. Grabbing the pants, he tugged them on and then pulled on a soft t-shirt. Snagging one of the towels on his way out, he went immediately to a chair and set about trying to roll the pant legs up.

 

He got them rolled up, but as soon as he stood up, one of them immediately fell down. Rolling his eyes, he bent over to roll it up again, but cursed when the other one started to fall.

 

He was still fighting with the pants when Hyukjae emerged, dressed in his taekwondo uniform.

 

“Having issues?” Hyukjae asked, cinching his belt tight.

 

“They won’t stay up,” Donghae complained.

 

“Want to cut them?” Hyukjae asked. “I know we have some scissors around here.”

 

“Please. They’ll just annoy me if they’re long. Plus I hate these pants anyway.”

 

“Why is that?” Hyukjae asked as he went into the kitchen area to get the scissors.

 

“I had to wear them while they were holding me in prison back in Mokpo,” Donghae explained, feeling like that time was far behind him, even though it had just been two months.

 

Hyukjae returned, shaking his head. “Were you put in with adults?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, but I was in my own little section, so I didn’t have to interact with other prisoners. Could you cut them? I wouldn’t be able to cut the backs straight without taking them off.”

 

Hyukjae paused for a second before nodding and kneeling down to be around eye level with where he was cutting. Donghae realized that him asking Hyukjae to cut his pants might have been a bad idea as he swallowed harshly. He was trying not to concentrate on the soft brushes of Hyukjae’s gloved fingers against his knees, or a different context for Hyukjae being on his knees when they felt comfortable enough to change the nature of their relationship.

 

The other piece of fabric dropped to Donghae’s feet and he stepped away from Hyukjae to bend down and gather the fabric, still trying to distract himself. “Should I throw these away?” he asked Hyukjae.

 

“No, just put it by the door,” Hyukjae answered as he got to his feet. “Several of the ahjummas like to sew and they’re always wanting fabric.”

 

They wandered back to building three, where Hyukjae took them down to the lowest level he could see on the elevator buttons.

 

“So what do you do on these days?” Donghae asked curiously.

 

“I’ll go through my basic forms for taekwondo, mostly. I’m doing a lot of instruction since I’m first rank, so I like to keep in practice so I know what I’m teaching. When Sunkyu gets out of the pool, I’ll probably practice archery with her for a while too,” Hyukjae said with a shrug.

 

Donghae nodded, frowning a bit. He wasn’t used to jealousy, but he did find himself resenting Sunkyu slightly. He mentally told himself off, trying to force his emotions to follow a more logical path, reminding himself that even though he knew his future with Hyukjae, it didn’t mean that they were in a relationship now.

 

The door to the elevators opened and Donghae nearly forgot about being jealous. He walked out of the elevator with his mouth hanging open, trying to take in everything that was available. He saw at least three pools, a track that circled the room, targets set up on a far wall for archery, and several mats laid out. Several mothers sat in a shallow pool talking while their young children splashed around them, and a small group of elderly men sedately paced around the track. The entire floor had sunlight streaming in from skylights, providing natural light, but he could also see artificial lights along the ceiling. “Holy crap,” he exclaimed.

 

“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Sunkyu asked, smiling brightly. “I’m still not used to it, and I’ve been here almost a year.”

 

“How come I’ve never seen this?” Donghae asked, looking up, trying to figure out where they were in the large courtyard.

 

“Because we’re actually underground,” Hyukjae explained. “The skylights kind of make you think we’re not, but they’re set into the ground of the courtyard. It keeps this area at a pretty comfortable temperature even if you’re not exercising.”

 

Donghae tilted his head. “So I can use the pools all year long?” he asked.

 

“Yes, water brain,” Hyukjae teased, ruffling his hair. “All of the pools have heaters. Go hop in, I’m sure Hyuna’s already in the deep pool.”

 

“How many pools are there?” He felt vaguely satisfied at the casual physical touch from Hyukjae.

 

“Four. There’s that shallow one for the babies and toddlers, the deep pool that goes down I think fifteen meters, a pool for doing swimming laps, and one that we can just play around in. No one’s allowed to go swimming if they’re here alone, though, someone always has to be here to help.”

 

“Ah, good,” Donghae replied, his sole safety concern addressed. He considered himself a decent swimmer, having learned in both the ocean and in a pool, but he knew that it was much safer with someone around.

 

“Go have fun swimming,” Hyukjae said as a farewell, starting to move off towards the mats.

 

“Come on,” Sunkyu said, tilting her head towards where Donghae assumed the other pools were. “You can swim right?”

 

“Yeah,” Donghae answered easily. “I’m from Mokpo, so a lot of summers were spent on the beach.”

 

“Oooh, that must have been nice. I’m from Seoul, so all I’ve ever had is pools unless we went on a family trip to the beach. Hyuna’s probably going to bug you with questions about the beach and ocean. I don’t think she’s ever been in saltwater before.” Sunkyu’s chatter made Donghae smile a bit, any resentment he had evaporating.

 

“That must be difficult for her,” Donghae said.

 

Sunkyu shrugged. “I don’t know, but I know that’s something that she wants to do at some point, and I keep asking my uncle if he can get the Ministry to make an exception for a day and let her go, but no luck as of yet,” she finished, scrunching her nose.

 

“Is he in politics?” Donghae asked, genuinely curious.

 

“Yep! He’s been in the National Assembly for a while. It’s only because of him that the Ministry was nice when I tested positive, even though I’m not that powerful. They gave me a choice of staying with my uncle all the time or coming to Home.” She shrugged easily, smiling. “I think I made the right choice,” she told him.

 

Donghae grinned back at her. “What’s your power?”

 

“Heenim sunbae called it techno augmentation. I take any technology and just make it work better. I can’t create it or anything, I have to use what’s around,” she explained.

 

“Wait, you’re a techno?” Donghae asked, stopping.

 

“Kind of.”

 

“Heenim sunbae told me to stay away from cranky technos.”

 

Sunkyu giggled for a second. “Sunbae probably meant Kyuhyunnie. I can work no matter if I’m wet or not, but Kyuhyunnie…” she shook her head. “I’d be surprised if he showers once a year.”

 

“Ew?”

 

“Oh no, it’s fine. He takes dry baths every day, but he shorts out if he’s even just sweaty. If he gets too rude with you, just threaten to splash him with some water and he’ll stop.”

 

“Is he an adult?”

 

“No, he’s a year younger than me, so he’s still in the legal school, but he’ll be coming to the high school next year. He acts like a brat a lot, but he’s actually a really nice person.”

 

“I was starting to wonder if you were coming,” Hyuna complained as they came up on a large, round pool. To Donghae, she looked far more comfortable and at home in the water, her hair gently floating along the surface of the pool as she floated on her back.

 

“Did you turn the heaters on?” Sunkyu asked, setting her towel down next to what Donghae guessed were Hyuna’s clothes.

 

“Yeah,” Hyuna replied lazily. “You might have to make the lower ones more efficient though. It’s still cold down towards the bottom.”

 

Sunkyu nodded as her fingers unbuttoned her shorts, much to Donghae’s embarrassment. He concentrated on putting his towel down in a spot that would stay dry and tugging his shirt off. “I’ll see if I can find one of the air tanks or make Jitae open up an air shaft, he needs the practice anyway.”

 

Slipping into the water was such a _relief_ to him after the harrowing morning he’d had, and it felt like the water was softly hugging his body. Holding onto the side of the pool, he pushed himself underwater, slowly blowing out his breath. When he needed air in his lungs, he popped his head above the water line.

 

“Feel better?” Hyuna teased.

 

“You have no idea,” Donghae replied with a smile. “Like I was telling Hyukjae, it’s like the water was calling me and I just really needed this.”

 

“I know that feeling,” Hyuna commented with a shake of her head. “Are you going to do anything in the pool?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Practicing.”

 

“Oh, no, probably not. I still don’t even know what I can do aside from just being a kinetic with water. H – I think I might be kind of like Katara from _Avatar_.”

 

“Korra was a waterbender too,” Sunkyu replied.

 

“Yeah, but Korra was the Avatar, Katara could only use water.” Sunkyu nodded a little in agreement.

 

“What are you two talking about?” Hyuna asked, looking confused.

 

“You’ve never seen _Avatar_?” Donghae asked, absolutely shocked.

 

Hyuna shook her head. “I was born here, remember? We aren’t given a lot of entertainment options unless we have family outside.”

 

“Oh, right.”

 

“I’ll see if my parents can send me the DVDs for you,” Sunkyu offered. “It’s a really good cartoon show.”

 

“Okay!” Hyuna moved to where she was treading water. Donghae watched, fascinated as long, deeper blue stripes appeared along the sides of her face and going down her chest and arms.

 

“That’s cool!”

 

Hyuna beamed. “Thanks! It’s my lateral lines. I’m going to go under for a while, do either of you need me for anything?”

 

“Have fun,” Sunny replied, playfully making waves.

 

Hyuna waved and easily sank into the clear water. Donghae could see her swimming towards the bottom of the pool, easily turning and twisting as she swam around. He relaxed under the bright light of the sun, being comforted by his element gently cradling his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, kudos and comments are appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> Like it? Chime in with kudos and comments, do the good things in life.


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